Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 51:1
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
1. Have mercy upon me ] Or, Be gracious unto me, as the word is rendered in 2Sa 12:22. It suggests the free bestowal of favour rather than the exercise of forgiving clemency, and is connected with the word rendered gracious in Exo 34:6. Cp. Psa 4:1; Psa 56:1; Psa 57:1.
thy lovingkindness ] The origin and the bond of the covenant between Jehovah and Israel.
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies ] Or, according to the abundance of thy compassions. Cp. Psa 25:6; Isa 63:7; Lam 3:32 ; 1Pe 1:3.
The prayer for pardon is thus based upon God’s revelation of His character as “a God full of compassion and gracious, abundant in lovingkindness and truth; keeping lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty” (Exo 34:6-7); a passage which seems to have supplied the Psalmist’s language. Cp. Psa 86:15; Joe 2:13.
Sin is described, as in Exo 34:7 (cp. Psa 32:1-2), in three different aspects, as transgression, iniquity, sin: the Heb. words thus rendered meaning respectively, (1) defection from God or rebellion against Him: (2) the perversion of right, depravity of conduct: (3) error, wandering from the right way, missing the mark in life.
The removal of guilt is also triply described. (1) Blot out (cp. Psa 51:9): sin is regarded as a debt recorded in God’s book which needs to be erased and cancelled (cp. the use of the word in Exo 32:32; Num 5:23; and see note on Psa 32:2): or the word may be used more generally ( wipe out) of cleansing away defilement so that no trace of it remains (2Ki 21:13). Cp. the promise in Isa 43:25; Isa 44:22; and also Neh 4:5; Jer 18:23. (2) Wash me: the word means properly to wash clothes, as a fuller does (LXX correctly, , cp. Rev 7:14; Rev 22:14), and is frequently used of ceremonial purifications (Exo 19:10; Exo 19:14, &c.): here it denotes that inward cleansing of which external washings were the type. Cp. Jer 2:22; Jer 4:14. He prays, ‘wash me thoroughly,’ or, abundantly, for “the depth of his guilt demands an unwonted and special grace.” But if transgressions abound (Lam 1:5), so does mercy. (3) Cleanse me (cp. be clean, Psa 51:7); like wash, a common term in the Levitical ritual, especially in the laws concerning leprosy, meaning sometimes to cleanse, sometimes to pronounce clean. This use of it suggests the comparison of sin with leprosy. Cp. Lev 13:6; Lev 13:34, &c.; 2Ki 5:10; 2Ki 5:12-14.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 4. Prayer for forgiveness and cleansing: its ground, God’s grace; its condition, man’s repentance.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Have mercy opon me, O God – This is the utterance of a full heart; a heart crushed and broken by the consciousness of sin. The psalmist had been made to see his great guilt; and his first act is to cry out for mercy. There is no attempt to excuse his sin, or to apologise for it; there is no effort to vindicate his conduct; there is no complaint of the righteousness of that holy law which condemned him. It was guilt that was before his mind; guilt only; deep and dreadful guilt. The appeal properly expresses the state of a mind that is overwhelmed at the remembrance of crime, and that comes with earnestness to God to plead for pardon. The only hope of a sinner when crushed with the consciousness of sin is the mercy of God; and the plea for that mercy will be urged in the most earnest and impassioned language that the mind can employ. Accordingly to thy Iovingkindness. On the meaning of the word used here, see the notes at Psa 36:7.
(a) The ground of his hope was the compassion of God:
(b) the measure of that hope was His boundless beneficence; or, in other words, he felt that there was need of all the compassion of a God.
His sin was so great, his offence was so aggravated, that he could have no hope but in a Being of infinite compassion, and he felt that the need of mercy in his case could be measured and covered only by that infinite compassion.
According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies – The same idea occurs here also. The psalmist fixed his eye on the vastness of the divine mercy; on the numberless acts of that mercy toward the guilty; here he found his hope, and here alone. Every instance of extraordinary mercy which had occurred in the world furnished him now with an argument in his appeal to God; was an encouragement to him in that appeal; was a ground of hope that his appeal would not be rejected. So to us: every instance in which a great sinner has been forgiven is evidence that we may be forgiven also, and is an encouragement to us to come to God for pardon. See the notes at 1Ti 1:16.
Blot out my transgressions – In allusion to an account that is kept, or a charge made, when such an account is wiped away, erased, or blotted out. Compare Exo 32:32-33; see the notes at Isa 43:25; notes at Isa 44:22; notes at Col 2:14. Never was a more earnest appeal made by a sinner than that which is made in this verse; never was there a more sincere cry for mercy. It shows us where we should begin in our prayers when we are pressed down with the consciousness of sin – with a cry for mercy, and not an appeal to justice; it shows us what is to be the ground and the measure of our hope – the mere compassion of an infinitely benevolent God; it shows us the place which we must take, and the argument on which we must rely – a place among sinners, and an argument that God has been merciful to great sinners, and that therefore he may be merciful to us.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 51:1-19
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness.
The fifty-first psalm
A darker guilt you will scarcely find–kingly power abused–worst passions yielded to. Yet this psalm breathes from a spirit touched with the finest sensibilities of spiritual feeling. Two sides of our mysterious twofold being here. Something in us near to hell; something strangely near to God. It is good to observe this, that we rightly estimate: generously of fallen humanity; moderately of highest saintship. The germs of the worst crimes are in us all. In our deepest degradation there remains something sacred, undefiled, the pledge and gift of our better nature.
I. Scripture estimate of sin.
1. Personal accountability. My sin. It is hard to believe the sins we do are our own. We lay the blame anywhere but on ourselves. But here David owns it as his.
2. Estimated as hateful to God. The simple judgment of the conscience. But another estimate, born of the intellect, comes in collision with this religion and bewilders it. Look over life, and you will find it hard to believe that sin is against God: that it is not rather for Him. No doubt, out of evil comes good; evil is the resistance in battle, out of which good is created and becomes possible; it is the parent of all human industry. Even moral evil is generative of good. Thoughts such as these, I doubt not, haunt and perplex us all. Conscience is overborne by the intellect. Perhaps evil is not so bad after all–perhaps good–who knows? Remember, therefore, in matters practical, conscience, not intellect, is our guide. Unsophisticated conscience ever speaks this language of the Bible.
3. Sin estimated as separation from God. It is not that suffering and pain follow it, but that it is a contradiction of our own nature and Gods will. This is the feeling of this psalm. Do you fancy that men like David, shuddering in sight of evil, dreaded a material hell? Into true penitence the idea of punishment never enters. If it did it would be almost a relief; but oh! those moments in which a selfish act has appeared more hideous than any pain which the fancy of a Dante could devise I when the idea of the strife of self-will in battle with the loving will of God prolonged for ever, has painted itself to the imagination as the real infinite Hell! when self-concentration and the extinction of love in the soul has been felt as the real damnation of the devil-nature!
II. Restoration.
1. Sacrifice of a broken spirit. Observe the accurate and even Christian perception of the real meaning of sacrifice by the ancient spiritually-minded Jews. It has its origin in two feelings: one human, one divine. The feeling that there must be something surrendered to God, and that our best, is true; but men have mixed up with it the false thought that this sacrifice pleases God because of the loss or pain which it inflicts. Hence, the heathen idea of appeasement, to buy off his wrath, to glut his fury. See story of Iphigenia, Zaleucus, etc. These notions were mixed with Judaism, and are even now found in common views of Christs sacrifice. But men like David felt that what lay beneath all sacrifice as its ground and meaning was surrender to Gods will: that a mans best is himself; and to sacrifice this is the true sacrifice. Learn, then, God does not wish pain, but goodness; not suffering, but you–yourself–your heart. Even in the sacrifice of Christ, God wished only this. It was precious not because it was pain, but because the pain, the blood, the death, were the last and highest evidence of entire surrender.
2. Spirit of liberty. Thy free spirit–literally, princely. A princely is a free spirit, unconstrained–the royal law of liberty. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
The exceeding sinfulness of sin
I. The nature of sin in the eyes of one who sees God. Just as one crime against the State can set all the machinery of our civilization against us, on which our existence now runs so smoothly; and the network of law, which secured us freedom of motion in the right path, serves only to trip us up when we have left it; so, one great act of sin against God has the power to pervert all the spiritual relationships of our life. In an ethical study by a popular writer, in the form of a story; at a critical moment the heroine is vouchsafed a vision of a successful sin in all its hideous nature, and shrinks back appalled. David sees it here, but, alas I too late to save his life from the shadow which never again left it.
II. Where iniquity did abound, grace did much more abound. The penitent, having laid bare his sin, now asks for Gods grace. First he asks for mercy. When the foe lay vanquished in the power of the conqueror, to cry, Mercy! meant Ransom!–Spare my life and take a ransom! What a meaning it may have to us if, when we cry, Mercy! we feel that we are asking God to take a ransom! The soul that sinneth it shall die; but He in His pity allows me to plead those precious merits, and so obtain pardon and peace. But he goes on to ask God to do away his offences; to blot them out, as we read elsewhere. Sin remains as a witness against us, and only God can blot it out. This is what we mean by Absolution. But David goes even further. It is a bold prayer, an awful prayer: Wash me throughly–more and more. Have we courage to pray thus? Alas! we soon cry out.
III. The grounds on which he asks for pardon.
1. There is the multitude of Gods mercies. Each day we live is an argument in our favour. God sent me here; God has rescued me so often; God is always helping me; though I fall, I shall not be cast away. Hope is a great power. We seem like people forced to climb higher and higher up the face of the cliff by the sea driven in before the gale. It seems impossible to climb any further, and the spray is dashing in their faces, and the rock quivers to its base as the waves are shivered upon it. And then they find, it may be, at their feet, grass and flowers in the cleft of the rock, which could only grow above the highest water-mark, and at once they feel there is hope, and with hope comes an access of strength. So there are flowers in the lives of all of us here, which could only grow at a height above the devouring level of mortal sin. Let us hope.
2. He has told God everything; he has concealed nothing.
3. He acknowledges the true relation of sin to God. It is not the injury done to Uriah or to society; it is the insult done to God. God knows how weak we are. Behold, I was shapen in wickedness; and therefore the truth in the inward parts can only be reached when the plenitude of mercy touches the magnitude of sin. (Canon Newbolt.)
Davids repentance
I. The cry of contrition. Like a perfect master of medicine, unfolding in his clinical teaching, feature after feature Of the special ease under treatment till the very hereditary taint is manifest, David searches out this worst sickness; like the stern, skilful prosecutor summing up the damning evidence against a criminal, David lays bare fact after fact of his unmitigated guilt; like a faithful, solemn judge according just recompense to the evildoer, David pronounces on himself the penalty of Gods righteous law.
II. The cry for cleansing. This cry for cleansing is twofold–cleanse the record, cleanse myself. Two faces are bent over the proofs of his sin–Gods and Davids. From each gazer these sins must be hidden–from the one that there may be no condemnation, from the other that there may be full consolation. Cleanse me, wash me, make me whiter than snow. What orderliness, what Spirit-taught wisdom in this prayer! A polluted stream may be run off, but a poisoned spring must be cured. The wells of Marsh and the springs of Jericho call for their Makers hand. So does my heart. What a terrible but fruitful view of sin!
III. The cry of consecration. These new powers shall not be wasted. The new heart and the new spirit long for work. This fresh and unstinted grace to David fills his soul with thankfulness, and thankfulness embodies itself in toil for God and man. Praise is not wanting. But works surpass words. Grace from God always produces giving to God. Labour is as love, and love is as forgiveness. Where there is no condemnation there should be full consecration. (J. S. Macintosh, D. D.)
The prayer of the penitent
I. The prayer. It was both general and specific. He desired mercy, and he desired it to be specifically manifested in several ways, which he enumerates.
1. The general petition. Have mercy upon me. He did not plead right or merit; he did not plead a mitigation Of the righteous law of God. He knew exactly what he needed; and so, like the publican, he sent the arrow of his prayer straight go the mark of his need;
2. The specific petition.
(1) Blot out my transgressions. All of them; the covetousness, the adultery, the murder. To blot out carries with it the idea primarily of forgiveness (Isa 43:25; Isa 44:22). 42) Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. This is a prayer for justification, as the former petition was for forgiveness. Forgiveness is an act of the gracious and sovereign will of God; but to justify a man from his iniquity is to do so on the ground of some expiation. Hence Davids allusion to the ceremonial law (Psa 51:7). (Compare Lev 14:4; Lev 14:9; Num 19:18; Heb 9:22.) The allusion may be illuminated if we remember the word of Isaiah to sinful Israel (Isa 1:18), and the ascription of praise to the Lord Jesus (Rev 1:5).
(3) Cleanse me from my sin. This is a prayer for sanctification. Sin is an offence against God, against the law, and it leaves a stain deep and dark on our souls. Gods mercy provides for this also, and we are assured of such Cleansing (Eph 5:25-27).
II. The confession.
1. Frank acknowledgment. No excuses; no justification. I have sinned–that is the long and the short of it. He did not lay the blame on Bathsheba, as Adam on Eve.
2. A standing offence. Unforgiven sin is before us and before God; but forgiven sin is cast behind Gods back, and is among the things upon which we also may turn our backs.
3. An offence against God. God was more wronged even than man, and while no doubt he sorrowed that he had wronged his friend and his friends wife, he most bitterly grieved that he had wronged God in them.
4. Deep conviction. Behold I was shapes in iniquity, etc. David is convinced that an inherent depravity of nature is the evil root from which all sin springs. So herein he confesses his sinful nature as well as his sinful deeds. It is out of the heart that all evil proceeds. Hence his further prayer, Behold Thou desirest truth in the inward parts, etc. In this we have a strong hint of regeneration. The nature that is spoiled by sin must be renewed inwardly.
III. Renewed petition. He repeats his prayer for purging and washing, just as oftentimes, even after we are forgiven, the memory of the bitter sins still remains, and we are in some doubt whether it is all gone. It is like the burning of a wound that is healed. It is the sign of returning health; the desire of the soul for an after bath in the cleansing tide.
1. Joy and gladness.
2. He prays for a new heart.
3. He prays for the restoration of salvations joy.
4. A vow of consecration. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)
A petition and an argument
I. The petition Have mercy upon me, etc.
1. Forgiveness of sin is mainly desirable of every sinner.
(1) It frees us from the greatest evil–sin.
(2) It entitles us to the greatest good-forgiveness.
(3) It comforts in the greatest-afflictions incident to us.
(4) It sweetens all other comforts.
2. This serves to stir up our affections and desires in this particular.
3. And the sooner we do this, the better. It is not good or safe for any to suffer sin to be festering in their souls, but to be rid of it as soon as may be, and of the guilt adherent to it; by humiliation of themselves before God, and seeking to Him.
(1) Confession and acknowledgment of miscarriages.
(2) Prayer and seeking to God.
(3) Forsaking it and turning from it.
(4) Forgiveness of others. By these, and the like means, we see how we may attain to this mercy of pardon and forgiveness of our sins.
II. The argument. According to thy lovingkindness, etc.
1. Here is something supposed; viz. that there is in God lovingkindness and a multitude of tender mercies.
(1) Lovingkindness, i.e. grace (Psa 116:5; Psa 86:15; Psa 145:9). Here is matter of praise and acknowledgment. We may take notice of it also in a way of information, that we may be able rightly to discern of Gods love and affection to us; we cannot judge of it by His kindness, for that is general and common to all; and there are none (though never so bad) but they do in a degree partake of it, thereby to stop their mouths against Him, and to leave them without excuse. Gods kindness is a lesson to us, to teach us go follow His example.
(2) Mercy or compassion.
(a) The tenderness of Gods mercy is seen in–
(i.) His prudent consideration of the state and condition of the person who sins against Him (Psa 103:13).
(ii.) His deferring and forbearing to punish and correct, where, notwithstanding, there is ground for it (Psa 86:15; Joe 2:13; Jon 4:2; Nah 1:3).
(iii.) The moderating of His corrections (Jer 30:11). Severity knows no limits when once it begins; but tenderness puts a restraint upon itself; and this also is in God (Psa 103:10; Ezr 9:13).
(iv.) The seasonable removal; theres tenderness in that also (Psa 103:9).
(b) The greatness of it (Psa 57:10; Psa 119:156).
(i.) In regard of the object of it. It extends to the pardoning and forgiving of great sins (Isa 1:18; 1Ti 1:13).
(ii.) For the freeness of it (Rom 9:17; Isa 43:25).
(iii.) For the duration (Isa 54:7-8; Psa 103:17; Lam 3:22).
(c) The number and plurality. He has mercy for:
(i.) Many persons.
(ii.) Many offences.
(iii.) Many times of offending (Isa 55:7; Jam 2:13; Rom 5:20; Hos 14:4; Psa 103:3).
2. The inference.
(1) Our knowledge of God is then right, and as it should be, when it is improved and drawn down to practice and our own spiritual comfort and advantage.
(2) The best of us stand in need of mercy in their approaches to God.
(3) Great sinners require great mercies for the pardoning and forgiving of them (Thomas Horton, D. D.)
The psalmists prayer for mercy
I. To whom the prayer is addressed. He does not address himself to God under the name Jehovah; but makes use of the plural title, which is commonly employed in Scripture when the gracious intercourse of Deity with fallen creatures is spoken of. The title implies the covenant relation to sinful man which God has been pleased to reveal through Jesus Christ our Lord. In our Litany mercy is implored by the use of this title from each of the three Persons in the adorable Trinity separately; and from the Trinity, as three in One.
II. The object which a penitent sinner proposes to himself in drawing near to God; and the spirit or frame of mind in which he addresses Him. A recovery of Divine favour is the grand object of desire to those who are made conscious of its value and of its forfeiture. In Thy favour is life. Guilt, natural and acquired, constitutes the impenetrable veil which separates between God and the contrite sinner; and the mediation of Christ, the light of life, is regarded as the only agency by which the dense veil can be swept away.
III. The measure or rule, according to which a penitent sinner desires to be dealt with in the expected answer to his prayer, According to Thy lovingkindness. How delightful is this co-operation of the persons of the Godhead in effecting the salvation of sinners! The grace of the Father provided and has accepted the needful atonement; the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished the work of propitiation; and the grace of the Holy Ghost enables us to pray for an interest in that atonement, and then reveals it, in all its freeness and sufficiency, to the afflicted heart. Thus is the life that is restored to a sinner, in every point of view, the life of God in the soul of man. The term lovingkindness seems literally to import a confluence of streams to form one vast river. And is not this the view which faith takes of Divine grace–a river deep and wide which is formed by a confluence of all the perfections of the Godhead? Omnipotence, omniscience, infinite justice and holiness all flow into this river of the water of life. (T. Biddulph, M. A.)
The greatness of sin to a true penitent
1. The true penitent sees sin as against God.
2. The penitent sees in his sin a corruption of nature. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity.
3. The penitent acknowledges that all his religous acts are a mockery of God. Thou desirest not sacrifice . . . Thou delightest not in burnt offering. If religious acts, offerings, prayers, labours, penances, could cover sin, how gladly would he bring them! We have made clean the outside. God desireth truth in the inward parts.
4. The penitent sees that sin deprives him of joy, and thus of spiritual power.
5. The penitent sees his sin as destructive to the Church. To the opened eyes of David his sin had, as it were, thrown down the walls of Zion. Build thou, he prays, the walls of Jerusalem! Every backsliders sin has this destroying power.
6. The true penitent offers no extenuation for sin. Beware of palliations. They may exist. Let others find them. Let God allow for them if He will. But in the penitent they always indicate that the work in him has not been thorough.
7. The penitent sees that the evil of sin is its sinfulness. He felt himself, by his sin, separated from God.
8. The penitent sees that public sin demands a full and public confession. Perhaps there are sins in our lives, which in our confessions we have slighted. They were known to others; they had publicity. And men who knew us said, If he ever repents he will confess that sin. That shall be the test with us of the genuineness of his repentance. But we did not confess. We tried. Often it troubles us.
9. The true penitent justifies God in His judgment upon sin.
10. The penitent acknowledges that sin requires a great remedy. He needed inward cleansing. Purge me with hyssop refers to the Levitical sacrifice which prefigured the atonement. Only when we make sin great do we give the sacrifice of Christ its due honour. (Monday Club Sermons.)
The prayer of the Penitent
I. The guilt of sin. Titles of lighter meaning have been substituted in its place–vice as though it were merely an evil against self alone; crime or an offence against society. All such subterfuges are simply a glossing over of what is a moral evil in its relations to God. You cannot touch man without touching God; cannot wrong him without wronging God.
II. The Divine forgiveness, Between blinding ones eyes against the guilt of sin and seeking infinite mercy to overcome such guilt, there is almost an infinite remove. It exalts the Divine character to know His readiness to forgive sin, while at the same time God can be justified when he speaks, and be clear when He judges.
III. The new heart. There must be more than the outward cleansing of the cup to make it clean. All things must become new in the new creature in Christ Jesus.
IV. The fruits of the new life.
1. He seeks first the personal rest freed from the goadings of his sin. He longs for the joy he once had, but which is now lost. He seeks a strength other than his own.
2. He recognizes the connection between the character of the leaders and the followers in the service of God. Then will I teach transgressors, etc. (David O. Mears.)
The moan of a king
The prayers of the Bible are among its sublimest treasures. Prayer does not set forth merely what I am, but what I would be; it is my ideal life; it is a glimpse and a struggling after a higher mode of being. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Mark the thoroughness of this desire. Not only must sin be blotted out, but the sinner himself must be washed and cleansed. There must not be merely a change of state, but a change of nature. Not only must the debt be forgiven, but all disposition to contract further debt must be eradicated. David at the outset of the psalm appeals for mercy. No penitent asks for justice. The Pharisee may, not the publican. But for sin we should never have known the merciful side of the Divine government. We should have known nothing but law. As we are indebted to the storm for the rainbow, so we are indebted to sin for the better boon of earth-encircling mercy. I acknowledge my transgressions. Confession is a necessary basis for forgiveness, and is a convergence of right judgment, right feeling, right action. But there are many kinds of expression which are wholly unavailing. As the selfish confession of the criminal who turns kings evidence. The defiant confession of the man who glories in his crime. The careless confession made with an air of indifference and is insensible of the turpitude of his crime. But Davids is far other than these. My sin is ever before me. The point to be noted here is the distinct personal relation which every man sustains to his own sin. Try for a moment to embody sin. Personify iniquities! Let each transgression assume material manifestation. Covetousness–a lean, gaunt, spectral image; with outstretched bony fingers; with eager eyes, in which is written the expression of an insatiable hunger. Look at that and call it your sin. Unholy anger, with swollen lips and fire-lit eyes, and heaving breast; oaths and blasphemies might well burn on such lips and glare out of such eyes. That unholy anger is yours (verse 4). Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned. Some sins exclusively against God, others against man also; but none are exclusively against man. But whosoever sins against man sins against God. Let all oppressors heed this. While it is true, therefore, that you can sin against God without directly sinning against man, yet it is equally true that you cannot sin against God without diminishing your power to promote the highest interests of man; so that sin is an enemy in every respect–hateful to God, hurtful to man, darkening the heavens, burdening the earth! What shall be our prayer in relation to it? Wash me throughly, etc. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The penitent sinner
I. The penitents prayer.
1. A prayer of pity. Three ways of treating sin: indifference, severity, mercy. Gods way, as revealed specially by Christ, unites both justice and mercy.
2. A prayer for pardon. Sin must be blotted out before peace can be restored.
3. A prayer for purification. There is here a recognition–
(1) Of his perilous position; and
(2) Of his personal accountability: nay sin.
II. The penitents plea. He does not plead past purity, pious parentage, public position, princely prowess; but the plenitude of Gods mercy. A multitude of tender mercies! (Homilist.)
Lessons
1. To fly to God is the only true way to find comfort in the time of spiritual distress.
(1) There is a commandment for it (Psa 50:15).
(2) There is a promise of success (Isa 65:24).
(3) There is ability in God to give a gracious issue to all our distresses (Pro 18:8; Eph 3:20).
(4) He is ready both to be found and to afford that which is desired (Psa 46:1; Mic 7:18; Psa 145:18).
(5) Because He would have all His diligent in this course, He hath furnished them with the Spirit of prayer (Gal 4:6; Rom 8:26).
2. The mercy of God in the pardon of sin is a blessing of exceeding worth. It is the hungry soul that can best judge of the worth of good. It is he which lieth sick upon his couch, and not able to stir for weakness, that can tell the worth of health. When thy soul is pained with the horror of sin, then thou wilt be fit to apprehend the truth of this doctrine, and then thou wilt need but little quickening to this kind of suit.
3. In forgiving of sin, there is an utter abolishment on Gods part of the guilt of sin (Psa 32:1-2; Isa 44:22; Mic 7:18-19; Jer 31:34; Jer 50:20).
4. Man hath no plea but the freedom of Gods grace in making suit for the pardon of his sins (Psa 130:4; Ezr 9:6; Ezr 9:10; Ezr 9:15). (S. Hieron.)
The prayer for mercy
1. The true suppliant believes that there is mercy with God. This is the greatest wonder of the Divine being. The omniscience of God is a wonder. The omnipotence of God is a wonder. Gods spotless holiness is a wonder. None of these things can we understand. But the greatest wonder of all is the mercy of God. In heaven men are humbled at the thought of it, and never cease to adore and thank God for His mercy. For there God is known as the Holy One.
2. The suppliant also feels that he has need of mercy; that nothing but free grace alone can be his hope.
3. He desires also that mercy may be shown to him. That God is merciful, he cries, that I know there is great mercy with God, that there is mercy for all son still bring me no rest. What I need to make the anxious heart peaceful is, that I should know God is merciful to me, Be merciful to me, yes, to me, O God of mercy.
4. This longing is in full harmony with what Gods Word teaches us on these points. The Word speaks always of finding mercy, obtaining mercy, receiving mercy, partaking of mercy, having mercy; and looked at from the side of God as an action, it is called giving mercy, showing mercy. (Andrew Murray.)
Gods lovingkindness
Gods kindness is more than ordinary, and more than extraordinary; it must be called loving. The kindness is loving, and the love is kind. There is no love like His, no kindness like His. All kindness but this, if you use it often, wears out. However great the kindness of a neighbour be, if you keep daily drawing upon it you will soon exhaust it. The kindness of a friend has limits which are soon reached and passed, The kindness of a father or a mother–for that is the kindest that this world possesses–that, even that, has its limits. Gods kindness is loving. It is the strong band of love that makes it so long and so lasting. You cannot break that cord, it is so fine and yet so strong. (T. Alexander, M. A.)
According unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Gods mercy
The greatest comfort that Christians have in their trouble is, that they have to do with a merciful God, and not rigorous, nor one who will chide with us continually, but, one who is slow to anger, ready to forgive, whose name is mercy, whose nature is merciful, who hath promised to be merciful, who is the Father of mercies. The earth is full of His mercies, they are above the heavens and the clouds; His mercy is above all His works, extending to a thousand generations, whose mercy endureth for ever. (A. Symson.)
Gods-tender mercies
They are unbounded, and they are tender. Our mercy is not tender. What little mercy you find in man is often harsh and hard. It is a common saying among us, I forgive, but I do not forget. There is often harshness, hardness, unkindness in the way in which our mercy is bestowed. And even when that is not so, but when man bestows his kindness and vouchsafes his mercy in his blandest way, you could never think of calling it tender. But God forgives; and when He forgives He does it tenderly. There is no upbraiding. He blots out the trangression, and there is no more remembrance of it at all. He forgets as soon as He forgives. It is done in a gentle way. Be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee. The sin is swept away; it is cast behind His, back into the depths of the sea. Gods mercies are very tender. And then they are a multitude. Tender in their nature, they are a multitude in their number. They are numberless, measureless, endless. Like the stars, man cannot count them. Like the grains of sand that cushion yonder wave-beaten shore, no man knows how many they be. Gods mercies, beginning with our birth, are heaped up around and upon us all day long, and all through our life journey. (T. Alexander, D. D.)
Gods former dealings a plea for mercy
These words, According to Thy lovingkindness and tender mercies, may be taken not only absolutely but respectively in reference to his own former experiences of the goodness of God towards him. David had found and felt how gracious God had been to him in former time, in divers mercies which He had bestowed upon him in several kinds and ways; and more particularly in the pardoning and forgiving of sin unto him, and in the assuring of him also of this pardon; and now he deals with God upon terms of His wonted goodness, which he desires still may be continued to him. This shows us the advantage of Gods children in this particular, that they can deal with God upon the account of former goodness; that having justified their persons in general, He should remit their special transgression to them; and having forgiven them the sins of their nature, He should therefore consequently forgive to them likewise the sins of their lives. The reason of it is this, because He is still like Himself, and changes not, so that he that hath done the one, will not stick to do the other with it; Gods mercies are so linked and chained together that we may reason in this manner from them. (Thomas Horton, D. D.)
Blot out my trangressions
The general prayer for mercy is not enough. The Lord desires that we should know and say what we would have mercy to do for us. And the first thing is this, According to the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. The law of God takes reckoning of every transgression that we commit. In the great account-book of heaven they stand against us as a record of our guilt. David knew that there could be no intercourse with the holy and righteous God so long as this old guilt was not abolished, was not blotted out. He knew that mercy could not convert or change the sinner, or bring him to heaven, unless his guilt was first blotted out. The wrath of God must first be appeased. The old guilt of the past must first be taken out of the way. The sinner must have acquittal and the forgiveness of his sins. This is the first work of Divine grace. Without this, God the Holy Judge cannot receive the sinner into His friendship; and therefore he prays, Have mercy upon me. Blot out my transgressions. (Andrew Murray.)
Sin blotted out
A boy ran in to his mother one day after he had read that promise, I will blot out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions. And he said: Mother, what does God mean when He says He will blot out my sins? What is He going to do with them? I cant see how God can really blot them out and put them away. What does it mean–blot out? The mother, who is always the best theologian for a child, said to the boy, Didnt I see, you yesterday writing on your slate? Yes, he said. Well, show it to me. He brought his slate to his mother, who, holding it out in front of him, said, Where is what you wrote? Oh, he said, I rubbed it out. Well, where is it? Why, mother, I dont know. But how could you put it away if it was really there? Oh, mother, I dont know. I know it was there, and it is gone. Well, she said, that is what God meant when He said, I will blot out thy transgressions. (Campbell Morgan, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PSALM LI
The psalmist, with a deeply penitent heart, prays for remission
of sins, 1-4;
which he confesses, and deeply deplores, 5-14;
states his willingness to offer sacrifice, but is convinced that
God prefers a broken heart to all kinds of oblations, 15-17;
prays for the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem, and
promises that then the Lord’s sacrifice shall be properly
performed, 18, 19.
NOTES ON PSALM LI
The title is long: “To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba.” The propriety of this title has been greatly suspected, says Bishop Horsley: “That this Psalm was not written on the occasion to which the title refers, is evident from the 4th and 18th verses. The 4th verse Ps 51:4 ill suits the case of David, who laid a successful plot against Uriah’s life, after he had defiled his bed: and the 18th Ps 51:18 verse refers the Psalm to the time of the captivity, when Jerusalem lay in ruins.” Dr. Kennicott is of the same mind. He says: “The title is misplaced; that it was written during the captivity, and the cessation of the temple worship; the author under great depression of mind, arising from the guilt of some crime, probably some compliance with heathen idolatry, not murder nor adultery; is plain from the 4th verse, “Against THEE ONLY have I sinned.”
The crime mentioned in the title was not only against God, but against the whole order of civil society; against the life of the noble and valiant captain whose wife Bath-sheba was, and against every thing sacred in friendship and hospitality. It was a congeries of sins against God and society. Were it not for the 4th, 18th, and 19th verses, the rest of the Psalm would accord well enough with the title, and the deep penitence it expresses would be suitable enough to David’s state. But see on Ps 51:4; Ps 51:18-19.
Verse 1. Have mercy upon me, O God] Without mercy I am totally, finally ruined and undone.
According to thy loving-kindness] Mark the gradation in the sense of these three words, Have MERCY on me, chonneni; thy LOVING-KINDNESS, chasdecha; – thy TENDER MERCIES, rachameycha, here used to express the Divine compassion. The propriety of the order in which they are placed deserves particular observation.
The first, rendered have mercy or pity, denotes that kind of affection which is expressed by moaning over an object we love and pity; that natural affection and tenderness which even the brute creation show to their young by the several noises they respectively make over them.
The second, rendered loving-kindness, denotes a strong proneness, a ready, large, and liberal disposition, to goodness and compassion, powerfully prompting to all instances of kindness and bounty; flowing as freely as waters from a perpetual fountain. This denotes a higher degree of goodness than the former.
The third, rendered tender mercies, denotes what the Greeks called , that most tender pity which we signify by the moving of the heart and bowels, which argues the highest degree of compassion of which nature is susceptible. See Chandler.
Blot out my transgressions] mecheh, wipe out. There is a reference here to an indictment: the psalmist knows what it contains; he pleads guilty, but begs that the writing may be defaced; that a proper fluid may be applied to the parchment, to discharge the ink, that no record of it may ever appear against him: and this only the mercy, loving-kindness, and tender compassions of the Lord can do.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Have mercy upon me; pity, and help, and answer me, in the desires I am now spreading before thee.
According to thy loving-kindness: I pretend to no merit, but humbly implore thy free grace and mercy. Thy mercies are infinite, and therefore sufficient for my relief, and such indeed do I need.
Blot out; either,
1. Out of my conscience and soul, where it hath left a stain and filthy character. Or,
2. Out of thy book of remembrance and accounts, in which all mens sins are written, and out of Which all men shall be judged hereafter, Rev 20:12; which is spoken of God after the manner of men. See Poole “Isa 43:25“; See Poole “Isa 44:22“.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1-4. A plea for mercy is aconfession of guilt.
blot outas from aregister.
transgressionsliterally,”rebellions” (Psa 19:13;Psa 32:1).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Have mercy upon me, O God,…. David, under a sense of sin, does not run away from God, but applies unto him, and casts himself at his feet, and upon his mercy; which shows the view he had of his miserable condition, and that he saw there was mercy in God, which gave him hope; and upon his bended knees, and in the exercise of faith, he asks for it;
according to thy lovingkindness; not according to his merits, nor according to the general mercy of God, which carnal men rely upon; but according to his everlasting and unchangeable love in Christ; from which as the source, and through whom as the medium, special mercy comes to the children of men. The acts of special mercy are according to the sovereign will of God: he is not moved to mercy neither by the merits nor misery of men, but by his free grace and favour; it is love that sets mercy to work: this is a most glaring gleam of Gospel light, which none of the inspired writers besides, except the Apostle Paul, saw, Eph 2:4;
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions; for his sin was complicated, attended with many others; and, besides, upon a view of this, he was led to observe all his other sins; and particularly the corruption of his nature, his original sin, which he mentions, Ps 51:5. These he desires might be “blotted out”; out of the book of account, out of God’s debt book; that they might not stand against him, being debts he was not able to pay or make satisfaction for; and out of the table of his own heart and conscience, where they were ever before him, and seemed to be engraven; that they might be caused to pass from him, and he might have no more conscience of them; or that they might be blotted out, as a cloud by the clear shining of the sun of righteousness, with the healing of pardoning grace in his wings; or that they might be wiped away, as any faith is wiped from any person or thing: and all this “according to the multitude of [his] tender mercies”. The mercy of God is plenteous and abundant; he is rich in it, and various are the instances of it; and it is exceeding tender, like that of a father to his children, or like that of a mother to the son of her womb; and from this abundant and tender mercy springs the forgiveness of sin, Lu 1:77. The psalmist makes mention of the multitude of the mercies of God, because of the multitude of his sins, which required a multitude of mercy to forgive, and to encourage his hope of it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Prayer for the remission of sin. Concerning the interchangeable names for sin, vid., on Psa 32:1. Although the primary occasion of the Psalm is the sin of adultery, still David says , not merely because many other sins were developed out of it, as his guilt of blood in the case of Uriah, the scandal put into the mouths of the enemies of Jahve, and his self-delusion, which lasted almost a whole year; but also because each solitary sin, the more it is perceived in its fundamental character and, as it were, microscopically discerned, all the more does it appear as a manifold and entangled skein of sins, and stands forth in a still more intimate and terrible relation, as of cause and effect, to the whole corrupt and degenerated condition in which the sinner finds himself. In sins are conceived of as a cumulative debt (according to Isa 44:22, cf. Isa 43:25, like a thick, dark cloud) written down (Jer 17:1) against the time of the payment by punishment. In (from , , to wash by rubbing and kneading up, distinguished from , , to wash by rinsing) iniquity is conceived of as deeply ingrained dirt. In , the usual word for a declarative and de facto making clean, sin is conceived of as a leprosy, Lev 13:6, Lev 13:34. the Ker runs ( imperat. Hiph., like , Psa 37:8), “make great or much, wash me,” i.e., (according to Ges. 142, 3, b) wash me altogether, penitus et totum , which is the same as is expressed by the Chethb (prop. multum faciendo = multum, prorsus , Ges. 131, 2). In (Isa 63:7) and is expressed the depth of the consciousness of sin; profunda enim malitia , as Martin Geier observes, insolitam raramque gratiam postulat .
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Penitential Petitions. | |
To the chief musician. A psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet
came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba.
1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. 5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
The title has reference to a very sad story, that of David’s fall. But, though he fell, he was not utterly cast down, for God graciously upheld him and raised him up. 1. The sin which, in this psalm, he laments, was the folly and wickedness he committed with his neighbour’s wife, a sin not to be spoken of, nor thought of, without detestation. His debauching of Bathsheba was the inlet to all the other sins that followed; it was as the letting forth of water. This sin of David’s is recorded for warning to all, that he who thinks he stands may take heed lest he fall. 2. The repentance which, in this psalm, he expresses, he was brought to by the ministry of Nathan, who was sent of God to convince him of his sin, after he had continued above nine months (for aught that appears) without any particular expressions of remorse and sorrow for it. But though God may suffer his people to fall into sin, and to lie a great while in it, yet he will, by some means or other, recover them to repentance, bring them to himself and to their right mind again. Herein, generally, he uses the ministry of the word, which yet he is not tied to. But those that have been overtaken in any fault ought to reckon a faithful reproof the greatest kindness that can be don them and a wise reprover their best friend. Let the righteous smite me, and it shall be excellent oil. 3. David, being convinced of his sin, poured out his soul to God in prayer for mercy and grace. Whither should backsliding children return, but to the Lord their God, from whom they have backslidden, and who alone can heal their backslidings? 4. He drew up, by divine inspiration, the workings of his heart towards God, upon this occasion, into a psalm, that it might be often repeated, and long after reviewed; and this he committed to the chief musician, to be sung in the public service of the church. (1.) As a profession of his own repentance, which he would have to be generally taken notice of, his sin having been notorious, that the plaster might be as wide as the wound. Those that truly repent of their sins will not be ashamed to own their repentance; but, having lost the honour of innocents, they will rather covet the honour of penitents. (2.) As a pattern to others, both to bring them to repentance by his example and to instruct them in their repentance what to do an what to say. Being converted himself, he thus strengthens his brethren (Luke xxii. 32), and for this cause he obtained mercy, 1 Tim. i. 16.
In these words we have,
I. David’s humble petition, Psa 51:1; Psa 51:2. His prayer is much the same with that which our Saviour puts into the mouth of his penitent publican in the parable: God be merciful to me a sinner! Luke xviii. 13. David was, upon many accounts, a man of great merit; he had not only done much, but suffered much, in the cause of God; and yet, when he is convinced of sin, he does not offer to balance his evil deeds with his good deeds, nor can he think that his services will atone for his offences; but he flies to God’s infinite mercy, and depends upon that only for pardon and peace: Have mercy upon me, O God! He owns himself obnoxious to God’s justice, and therefore casts himself upon his mercy; and it is certain that the best man in the world will be undone if God be not merciful to him. Observe,
1. What his plea is for this mercy: “have mercy upon me, O God! not according to the dignity of my birth, as descended from the prince of the tribe of Judah, not according to my public services as Israel’s champion, or my public honours as Israel’s king;” his plea is not, Lord, remember David and all his afflictions, how he vowed to build a place for the ark (Psa 132:1; Psa 132:2); a true penitent will make no mention of any such thing; but “Have mercy upon me for mercy’s sake. I have nothing to plead with thee but,” (1.) “The freeness of thy mercy, according to thy lovingkindness, thy clemency, the goodness of thy nature, which inclines thee to pity the miserable.” (2.) “The fulness of thy mercy. There are in thee not only lovingkindness and tender mercies, but abundance of them, a multitude of tender mercies for the forgiveness of many sinners, of many sins, to multiply pardons as we multiply transgressions.”
2. What is the particular mercy that he begs–the pardon of sin. Blot out my transgressions, as a debt is blotted or crossed out of the book, when either the debtor has paid it or the creditor has remitted it. “Wipe out my transgressions, that they may not appear to demand judgment against me, nor stare me in the face to my confusion and terror.” The blood of Christ, sprinkled upon the conscience, to purify and pacify that, blots out the transgression, and, having reconciled us to God, reconciles up to ourselves, v. 2. “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity; wash my soul from the guilt and stain of my sin by thy mercy and grace, for it is only from a ceremonial pollution that the water of separation will avail to cleanse me. Multiple to wash me; the stain is deep, for I have lain long soaking in the guilt, so that it will not easily be got out. O wash me much, wash me thoroughly. Cleanse me from my sin.” Sin defiles us, renders us odious in the sight of the holy God, and uneasy to ourselves; it unfits us for communion with God in grace or glory. When God pardons sin he cleanses us from it, so that we become acceptable to him, easy to ourselves, and have liberty of access to him. Nathan had assured David, upon his first profession of repentance, that his win was pardoned. The Lord has taken away thy sin; thou shalt not die, 2 Sam. xii. 13. Yet he prays, Wash me, cleanse, blot out my transgressions; for God will be sought unto even for that which he has promised; and those whose sins are pardoned must pray that the pardon may be more and more cleared up to them. God had forgiven him, but he could not forgive himself; and therefore he is thus importunate for pardon, as one that thought himself unworthy of it and knew how to value it.
II. David’s penitential confessions, v. 3-5.
1. He was very free to own his guilt before God: I acknowledge my transgressions; this he had formerly found the only way of easing his conscience, Psa 32:4; Psa 32:5. Nathan said, Thou art the man. I am, says David; I have sinned.
2. He had such a deep sense of it that the was continually thinking of it with sorrow and shame. His contrition for his sin was not a slight sudden passion, but an abiding grief: “My sin is ever before me, to humble me and mortify me, and make me continually blush and tremble. It is ever against me” (so some); “I see it before me as an enemy, accusing and threatening me.” David was, upon all occasions, put in mid of his sin, and was willing to be so, for his further abasement. He never walked on the roof of his house without a penitent reflection on his unhappy walk there when thence he saw Bathsheba; he never lay down to sleep without a sorrowful thought of the bed of his uncleanness, never sat down to meat, never sent his servant on an errand, or took his pen in hand, but it put him in mind of his making Uriah drunk, the treacherous message he sent by him, and the fatal warrant he wrote and signed for his execution. Note, The acts of repentance, even for the same sin, must be often repeated. It will be of good use for us to have our sins ever before us, that by the remembrance of our past sins we may be kept humble, may be armed against temptation, quickened to duty, and made patient under the cross.
(1.) He confesses his actual transgressions (v. 4): Against thee, thee only, have I sinned. David was a very great man, and yet, having done amiss, submits to the discipline of a penitent, and thinks not his royal dignity will excuse him from it. Rich and poor must here meet together; there is one law of repentance for both; the greatest must be judged shortly, and therefore must judge themselves now. David was a very good man, and yet, having sinned, he willingly accommodates himself to the place and posture of a penitent. The best men, if they sin, should give the best example of repentance. [1.] His confession is particular; “I have done this evil, this that I am now reproved for, this that my own conscience now upbraids me with.” Note, It is good to be particular in the confession of sin, that we may be the more express in praying for pardon, and so may have the more comfort in it. We ought to reflect upon the particular heads of our sins of infirmity and the particular circumstances of our gross sins. [2.] He aggravates the sin which he confesses and lays a load upon himself for it: Against thee, and in thy sight. Hence our Saviour seems to borrow the confession which he puts into the mouth of the returning prodigal: I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, Luke xv. 18. Two things David laments in his sin:–First, That it was committed against God. To him the affront is given, and he is the party wronged. It is his truth that by wilful sin we deny, his conduct that we despise, his command that we disobey, his promise that we distrust, his name that we dishonour, and it is with him that we deal deceitfully and disingenuously. From this topic Joseph fetched the great argument against sin (Gen. xxxix. 9), and David here the great aggravation of it: Against thee only. Some make this to intimate the prerogative of his crown, that, as a king, he was not accountable to any but God; but it is more agreeable to his present temper to suppose that it expresses the deep contrition of his soul for his sin, and that it was upon right grounds. He here sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah, against his own soul, and body, and family, against his kingdom, and against the church of God, and all this helped to humble him; but none of these were sinned against so as God was, and therefore this he lays the most sorrowful accent upon: Against thee only have I sinned. Secondly, That it was committed in God’s sight. “This not only proves it upon me, but renders it exceedingly sinful.” This should greatly humble us for all our sins, that they have been committed under the eye of God, which argues either a disbelief of his omniscience or a contempt of his justice. [3.] He justifies God in the sentence passed upon him–that the sword should never depart from his house, 2 Sam. xii. 10, 11. He is very forward to own his sin, and aggravate it, not only that he might obtain the pardon of it himself, but that by his confession he might give honour to God. First, That God might be justified in the threatenings he had spoken by Nathan. “Lord, I have nothing to say against the justice of them; I deserve what is threatened, and a thousand times worse.” Thus Eli acquiesced in the like threatenings (1 Sam. iii. 18), It is the Lord. And Hezekiah (2 Kings xx. 19), Good is the word of the Lord, which thou hast spoken. Secondly, That God might be clear when he judged, that is, when he executed those threatenings. David published his confession of sin that when hereafter he should come into trouble none might say God had done him any wrong; for he owns the Lord is righteous: thus will all true penitents justify God by condemning themselves. Thou art just in all that is brought upon us.
(2.) He confesses his original corruption (v. 5): Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. He does not call upon God to behold it, but upon himself. “Come, my soul, look unto the rock out of which I was hewn, and thou wilt find I was shapen in iniquity. Had I duly considered this before, I find I should not have made so bold with the temptation, nor have ventured among the sparks with such tinder in my heart; and so the sin might have been prevented. Let me consider it now, not to excuse or extenuate the sin–Lord, I did so; but indeed I could not help it, my inclination led me to it” (for as that plea is false, with due care and watchfulness, and improvement of the grace of God, he might have helped it, so it is what a true penitent never offers to put in), “but let me consider it rather as an aggravation of the sin: Lord, I have not only been guilty of adultery and murder, but I have an adulterous murderous nature; therefore I abhor myself.” David elsewhere speaks of the admirable structure of his body (Psa 139:14; Psa 139:15); it was curiously wrought; and yet here he says it was shapen in iniquity, sin was twisted in with it; not as it came out of God’s hands, but as it comes through our parents’ loins. He elsewhere speaks of the piety of his mother, that she was God’s handmaid, and he pleads his relation to her (Psa 116:16; Psa 86:16), and yet here he says she conceived him in sin; for though she was, by grace, a child of God, she was, by nature, a daughter of Eve, and not excepted from the common character. Note, It is to be sadly lamented by every one of us that we brought into the world with us a corrupt nature, wretchedly degenerated from its primitive purity and rectitude; we have from our birth the snares of sin in our bodies, the seeds of sin in our souls, and a stain of sin upon both. This is what we call original sin, because it is as ancient as our original, and because it is the original of all our actual transgressions. This is that foolishness which is bound in the heart of a child, that proneness of evil and backwardness to good which is the burden of the regenerate and the ruin of the unregenerate; it is a bent to backslide from God.
III. David’s acknowledgment of the grace of God (v. 6), both his good-will towards us (“thou desirest truth in the inward parts, thou wouldst have us all honest and sincere, and true to our profession”) and his good work in us–“In the hidden part thou hast made,” or shalt make, “me to know wisdom.” Note, 1. Truth and wisdom will go very far towards making a man a good man. A clear head and a sound heart (prudence and sincerity) bespeak the man of God perfect. 2. What God requires of us he himself works in us, and he works it in the regular way, enlightening the mind, and so gaining the will. But how does this come in here? (1.) God is hereby justified and cleared: “Lord, thou was not the author of my sin; there is no blame to be laid upon thee; but I alone must bear it; for thou has many a time admonished me to be sincere, and hast made me to know that which, if I had duly considered it, would have prevented my falling into this sin; had I improved the grace thou hast given me, I should have kept my integrity.” (2.) The sin is hereby aggravated: “Lord, thou desirest truth; but where was it when I dissembled with Uriah? Thou hast made me to know wisdom; but I have not lived up to what I have known.” (3.) He is hereby encouraged, in his repentance, to hope that God would graciously accept him; for, [1.] God had made him sincere in his resolutions never to return to folly again: Thou desirest truth in the inward part; this is that which God has an eye to in a returning sinner, that in his spirit there be no guile, Ps. xxxii. 2. David was conscious to himself of the uprightness of his heart towards God in his repentance, and therefore doubted not but God would accept him. [2.] He hoped that God would enable him to make good his resolutions, that in the hidden part, in the new man, which is called the hidden man of the heart (1 Pet. iii. 4), he would make him to know wisdom, so as to discern and avoid the designs of the tempter another time. Some read it as a prayer: “Lord, in this instance, I have done foolishly; for the future make me to know wisdom.” Where there is truth God will give wisdom; those that sincerely endeavour to do their duty shall be taught their duty.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Psalms 51
A Psalm of Repentance
This is a testimony of David, a psalm of earnest repentance, when he had taken to himself Bathsheba to wife, when she was not his wife, maneuvered the death of her husband, that he might take her to wife, when she was begotten with his child, to cover his great sin. Nathan, God’s prophet, had rebuked him of his sin against God, Israel, and Uriah. His sense of guilt was deep, his regret genuine; He confessed to Nathan, “I have sinned,” in this matter, 2Sa 12:13. He later wrote this psalm, as a temple prayer song, to be sung for the benefit of all Israel. Tho it was a private confession of David, of his sins against God, it was to become a public expression of his penitence before Israel, in which others too might join In repentance.
Scripture v. 1-19:
Verse 1 is a penitent cry for mercy, not justice. Divine justice could have justly slain him for his arrogant, self-willed, premeditated sins of adultery and murder. But he pled God’s mercy, lovingkindness, and pardon (the blotting out), to be held against him no more, of all his transgressions. By God’s mercy he had been saved, chosen, and anointed king of Israel, and kept from death on many occasions, Tit 3:5; La 3:22; Col 2:14. Sin exists in all men, even those with royal blood, in God’s anointed, even today; All must seek to avoid it, hastily repent, when overcome by it, Rom 3:23; 1Ki 8:46; Isa 1:16-18; 1Jn 1:8-9.
Verses 2, 3 call on God, “wash me, and cleanse me,” thoroughly from personal iniquity and personal sin, Heb 9:14; Heb 10:21-22; Rev 1:5. Transgressions are acts or deliberate deeds of moral wrong against the law of the Lord; and other sins include neglect of worshipping and serving Him as a clean witness. Psa 32:5. Man needs daily cleansing, which is provided for those who ask for it. 1Jn 1:7-9; 1Jn 2:2. He added that he acknowledged his transgressions and that his sin was ever, continually, before him, by the work of the Spirit on his conscience, Joh 16:8; Act 24:25; Isa 59:2.
Verse 4 declares that David had a view of his sins as against the Holy God first, else he would not have broken His commandments in matters of covetousness, theft, adultery, and murder, as forbidden Exodus ch. 20. In sinning against ones fellow man the greater degree of sin is rebellion against God and His laws. For ones fellowman bears the image of God; Thus when one sins against any human being, he sins against God! Rom 3:3-4. See also Gen 39:9; Lev 5:19; Lev 15:21.
Verse 5 asserts that David confessed that he was “shapen in iniquity,” (Heb cholalti), “brought forth amidst labor pains,” in a state, condition, of inherent disposition to practice deeds of iniquitous nature, as set forth, Job 14:4; Joh 3:6; Rom 5:12-14; Eph 2:3. This certifies that one has the germ of sin from conception and birth. Such is called original sin, total hereditary depravity, or birth-sin; Psa 58:3; Jas 1:15. Man was created in the likeness of God, “after his image,” in a state of holiness, and innocence, Gen 8:21; But when Adam had sinned, it is declared, “Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image,” Gen 5:3. David did not accuse his mother of sin in begetting him; He confessed instead that his deeds of sin sprang from a sin nature, received from the time of conception in his mother’s womb, and from his birth in particular.
Verse 6 restates with affirmative repetition, that God desired righteousness and truth to emanate from the heart; While David acknowledged that his nature was tainted by impulses of sin, from birth. He adds that in the “hidden part,” God would make him to know wisdom. For man to be right in life, he must be cleansed of the heart. Else his ways and deeds, no matter how pious, are deceitful and hypocritical, a way David had lived for about a year before praying and writing this prayer psalm, Jos 24:14; 1Ki 2:4; Joh 3:21; Joh 3:24.
Verse 7 appeals to the Lord to purge, purify, or “cleans him with hyssop” so that he might be clean and wash him that he “might be whiter than snow.” This alludes to ceremonial cleansing, required by the law: 1) When one had touched a dead corpse, he could be purged by the sprinkling of water mixed with ashes of the red heifer offering. It was applied with a bunch of .hyssop, Num 19:18; Numbers 2) When a leper was cured he was cleansed (ceremonially) with blood and water sprinkled from hyssop, Lev 14:4-7. Such was a type of the true offering of our Lord’s blood for the sins of men, Heb 9:13-14; Heb 9:19; Heb 12:24. Thus God condescended in His Son to purge the sins of all who repent, confess, and trust in Him, Isa 66:1-2; 2Co 5:21. See also Lev 14:4; Lev 14:6; Lev 14:49; 1Ki 4:33 identifies hyssop as a little shrub that springs out of the wall.
Verse 8 adds “make or cause me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.” He was weakened in His body, as if His bones were crushed, by piercing, conscious, tormenting guilt of breaking God’s law. The joy of the Spirit had been lost; inward guilt, an accusing conscience hounded him, till he found no rest in his unforgiven sins, v. 11, 12. See also Psa 6:2; Psa 38:3; Mat 5:4. They who mourn, in repentance, shall be comforted, 2Co 7:11.
Verses 9, 10 petition the Lord to hide His face, turn away from David’s sins, “and blot out all his iniquities.” He desired the Lord to “wipe the slate clean,” or give him a new leaf, an opportunity to start over again, tho scarred by his sins, v. 2. Verse 10 asks the Lord to create a clean heart (attitude), and renew a right spirit or disposition within him. And this the Lord will do for any who falls and is honest and earnest to confess and begin again; Even as the prodigal did, Luk 15:20-22; Joh 7:17; Joh 6:37; 1Jn 1:9; Tit 2:14; Eph 2:10.
Verse 11 pleads for the Lord to cast him not away from His presence or fellowship, as Cain was driven from the face of God, Gen 4:14; And as Israel was “cast from His presence,” 2Ki 13:23. But Gods spirit had not ceased striving with him, Gen 6:3; As he prayed it might not be; For it departed from Saul, 1Sa 16:1; 1Sa 16:13-14; See also Eph 4:30; Heb 6:4-6.
Verse 12 prays “restore to me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit,” or buoy me up with thy dynamic spirit, Rom 8:15; 2Co 3:17; Gal 4:6-7. He desired to walk in the liberty of the spirit, with a free heart, with no guilt or shame upon his soul, as a free servant indeed, Exo 35:5; Joh 8:34-36.
Verse 13 pledges that with forgiven sins, a joyful soul, and the power of the spirit within him, he will “teach trangressors” the ways of the Lord; Tho David. became a “lemon” in sin, he turned it, by repentance, to help transgressors find their way back to God. Blessed are the fallen who rise, and then help others, as David did, and as Peter did, Gal 6:1; Psa 126:5-6.
Verses 14-16 are an outcry from a broken and contrite heart for deliverance from “bloodguiltiness” or Uriah’s murder; Followed by a pledge to His God, the God of his salvation, Jon 2:9, to sing aloud of His righteousness. He begged the Lord. to “open His lips,” and cause Him to show forth His praises.
He desired to help all he had misled, Rom 1:14-15. A noble desire, Psa 107:2. He concluded that the Lord desired not mere sacrifices and burnt offerings, else he would have given them. It takes more than pious ceremonies and gifts to clear the soul of guilt, Isa 1:16-18; Psa 40:6; Psa 50:8; Pro 15:8; Pro 21:27; Jer 7:22; Jer 23:27; Amo 5:21; 1Sa 15:21-22; Heb 9:9.
Verses 17-19 conclude that the true sacrifices God accepts are: 1) the broken heart over sin; and 2) contrite spirit, desiring to have the wrong forgiven. Such, God will not despise, or take lightly, Joh 6:37; 1Jn 1:8-9. He further asks the Lord to do good in His pleasure toward Zion and build up the walls (security) of Jerusalem. Verse 19 certifies that only when the heart and life are right with God are forms, ceremonies, and rituals true symbols of spiritual worship and acceptable before God, Psa 4:5; Mal 3:3; Joh 4:24. This implies full surrender to the will of the Lord, as Isaiah did, Isa 6:8; and Paul did, Act 9:6.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. Have mercy upon me. David begins, as I have already remarked, by praying for pardon; and his sin having been of an aggravated description, he prays with unwonted earnestness. He does not satisfy himself with one petition. Having mentioned the loving-kindness of the Lord, he adds the multitude of his compassions, to intimate that mercy of an ordinary kind would not suffice for so great a sinner. Had he prayed God to be favorable, simply according to his clemency or goodness, even that would have amounted to a confession that his case was a bad one; but when he speaks of his sin as remissible, only through the countless multitude of the compassions of God, he represents it as peculiarly atrocious. There is an implied antithesis between the greatness of the mercies sought for, and the greatness of the transgression which required them. Still more emphatical is the expression which follows, multiply to wash me Some take הרבה, (258) herebeh, for a noun, but this is too great a departure from the idiom of the language. The sense, on that supposition, would indeed remain the same, That God would wash him abundantly, and with multiplied washing; but I prefer that form of expression which agrees best with the Hebrew idiom. This, at least, is certain from the expression which he employs, that he felt the stain of his sin to be deep, and to require multiplied washings. Not as if God could experience any difficulty in cleansing the worst sinner, but the more aggravated a man’s sin is, the more earnest naturally are his desires to be delivered from the terrors of conscience.
The figure itself, as all are aware, is one of frequent occurrence in Scripture. Sin resembles filth or uncleanness, as it pollutes us, and makes us loathsome in the sight of God, and the remission of it is therefore aptly compared to washing This is a truth which should both commend the grace of God to us, and fill us with detestation of sin. Insensible, indeed, must that heart be which is not affected by it!
(258) There are here two verbs, הרבה, herebeh, and כבסני, kabbeseni, the first signifying to multiply, and the second to wash Many expositors think that the verb הרבה, herebeh, is used in the sense of an adverb, and they read, Multum lava me “When two verbs of the same tense are joined together, whether a copula goes between them or not, the first is often expressed in Latin by an adverb.” — Glass. Lib. 1, Tract. 3, De Verbo Can. 29, tom. 1, p. 272. See Gen 25:1; Psa 6:10
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CONFESSION AND RECOVERY FROM SIN
Psalms 51-60
IN continuing the study of this second Book in the Psalter Pentateuch we come now to the question of the centuries, the sin question. This is not the first time that we have had to face it. From Gen 3:6, it has been the ever-present and never-solved problem.
This study is marvelously near the middle of our Book Divine; and the same question that has rung through the pages, already turned, will present itself in some form on practically every page of the Book till we come to Rev 22:21.
There are certain manifest suggestions in these ten chapters; but in a large way they are directly associated with the confession of sin, contrition for sin, and recovery from sin.
THE CONFESSION OF SIN Chapter 51
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy loving kindness: according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive five.
Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice.
Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and uphold me with Thy free Spirit.
Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness.
O Lord, open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise.
For Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it; Thou delightest not in burnt-offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.
Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion: build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.
Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt-offering and whole burnt-offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon Thine altar.
Here we have the acknowledgment of a personal transgression. We believe absolutely with those who hold that David was thinking upon his own past and reflecting with grief upon the Bathsheba incident, involving as it did, a practical combination of murder and lust.
As is usual with sin, the horror of it is only felt after the deed is effected; and for every prayer, such as our Lord taught us to say, Lead us not into temptation, a prayer that looks to avoiding the iniquitous, there are a hundred petitions of the sort here recorded
Have mercy upon me, O God, according unto Thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest.
Too few of our prayers anticipate danger; too many of them confess damnable acts already done.
There are those who see in this acknowledgment a corporate, rather than an individual confession. They think that this is the prophetic language of Israel when at last she realizes the iniquity of her rejection of Jesus. But such an interpretation, if it be at all possible, can only be accepted as an inference from David the type. The simple truth is that every word in this fifty-first Psalm fits exactly the spiritual experience of the speaker. The whole history of David shows him a man of tender conscience, unusually affectionate, and with a keen discernment of right and wrong. We are not in the least surprised, therefore, to hear from his lips this pathetic plea. It is a proof of conscious wrong on the part of a conscientious believer. It is the saints abhorrence of his own sin; and incidently, it introduces some of the most natural features of soul-experience. Take, for instance, the sentence, Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest (Psa 51:4).
Grant, in The Numerical Bible argues that such a confession, in Davids lips, would not have been true, even, since he had sinned against Uriah, against himself, and against Bathsheba; and so Grant sees in this, an application to repentant Israel.
But the argument is poorly based and far-fetched. The simple fact is, and millions of saved men would bear testimony to it, when the soul is convicted of sin that conviction seldom takes the form of conscious wrong to individual victims, or even that of willful transgression of the Law. The truth is as Delitzsch argues, Every relation in which man stands to his fellow-men, and to created things in general, is but the manifest form of his fundamental relationship to God; and as even Grant himself admits, At every point at which we touch His creatures, we touch God Himself; every blow struck at them is struck at Him.* * The guilt of every sin is fundamentally the same, revolt against God. This is, in a true sense, the only sin.
We knew a man well; in fact, we preached to him the truths that effected his salvation, and with our hands we laid him beneath the baptismal wave, who before his confession was a highway man, a gambler, a drunkard, an adulterer, and at the last, a would-be murderer. But his confession, following his salvation, was to this effect, When on that morning, the very day I had fixed upon for the destruction of my wife and children, and suicide, the Spirit of God came upon me with overwhelming conviction; and, as I walked out from my home, to fall on the grass of the back yard, face down, to cry for mercy, I had no sense of wrong concerning my past indolence, my past gambling, my past drunkenness, my past lusts; not even was I painfully sensible of the intention of murder and suicide. One great, overwhelming thought surged through my brain as loud as the sirens whistle, Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight.
It is interesting also to study the psychology of the sentence that follows, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity: and in sin did my mother conceive me This was not intended by the Psalmist in self-defense. He had passed that point and had admitted that God would be justified when He spake, and clearly defensible when He judged. It was said, rather, in explanation; it was an admission, I have always been wrong! I came from my mothers womb with a frightful twist in my moral nature and from the days when my steps toddled in uncertain paths I have been nothing but a sinner!
The phrases that follow indicate further Your eyes have searched my inward parts in vain. No truth is in them. You have looked for wisdom but it was not mine by nature; and if I am ever cleansed you must accomplish it; and if my soul is ever white, the cleansing must come from above! And then, as if to appeal if possible to the tenderness of God, he cries, Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice. And that he may escape just judgment, he adds,
Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
And he pleads,
Create in me a. clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.
Rather,
Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and uphold me with Thy free Spirit.
Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.
Alas, as if such a thought was too good to be true, he breathes and begins again, Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvationremember against me no more Uriahs death; free my conscience from that whole subject by speaking my absolution. And then, My tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness.
It looks now as if he had reached a higher table land; as if his heart would not sink again nor his feet mire; and he concludes the Psalm with these words,
Oh Lord, open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise.
For Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it; Thou delightest not in burnt-offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.
Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion; build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.
Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt-offering and whole burnt-offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon Thine altar.
Sweeping aside that whole school of interpreters who see in this Israels confession, we stand absolutely with those who believe it to be the utterance of a believers heart, broken with the sense of sin, conscious of just condemnation, and yet daring to hope in a merciful God. The verses 18 and 19 do not militate against that view. Few saints ever deplore their own sins, and forget the sanctuary. They grieve personal sin, lest it hinder the general cause, and so David prays for Zion, for Jerusalem, and for cleansing and consecration as symbolized in the temple ceremonies.
We now go to the study of another chapter, chapter fifty-two, and here we are tracing the history that led David into disappointment and difficulty.
Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man! The lovingkindness of God endureth continually;
Thy tongue deviseth very wickedness, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully;
Thou lovest evil more than good, and lying rather than to speak righteousness.
Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue.
God will likewise destroy thee for ever: He will take thee up, and pluck thee out of thy tent, and root thee out of the land of the living.
The righteous also shall see it, and fear, and shall laugh at him,
Saying, Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.
But as for me, I am like a green olive-tree in the house of God; I trust in the lovingkindness of God for ever and ever.
I will give Thee thanks for ever, because Thou hast done it; and I will hope in Thy Name, for it is good, in the presence of Thy saints. (Psa 52:1-9).
Here again, there are those who see in this Psalm a prophetic picture of the man of sin, the Anti-Christ to come. This view they rest in the phraseology of the Psalm. The boastful one if spoken of as mighty man, and the circumstance that he is a lying, deceitful man, is supposed to point to the great deceiver of prophetic Scriptures.
In our judgment such an interpretation is farfetched, and Psalms 52 is a natural sequence of Psalms 51. The whole setting of the Psalm is accounted for and explained in the incident of David meeting Doeg, the Edomite, the servant of Saul, when he visited Ahimelech, the priest, as recorded in 1 Samuel 21:l-9. It will be remembered that this information led to a fearful massacre, in which Doeg was a leader, and in which boastfulness and lying deceit played conspicuous part. Doeg was a mighty man, the chief of the herdmen. His arrogance is as great as his eventual ruin was eternal. When contemplating upon the former, David clearly prophesied the latter. God will likewise destroy thee for ever, He will take thee up, and pluck thee out of thy tent, and root thee out of the land of the living (Psa 52:5, A. S. V.).
Then he moralizes: The righteous also shall see it, and fear, and shall laugh at him, saying, Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness (Psa 52:6-7, A. S. V.). The record of that destruction is written into 1Sa 22:17-19. There are those who profess astonishment at Davids language. They are shocked by what they call gloating over the evil end of an enemy. But let it not be forgotten that true righteousness always rejoices in the overthrow, of the sinful, and the truly humble are, of necessity, glad to see the boastfully proud brought low.
What men call the imprecatory Psalms are not, as they imagine, merely curses of the self-confident, the malignant prayers of the man who imagines himself above and beyond his fellows; they are, instead, a legitimate expression of a heart that delights in good and hates evil. It is doubtful if there is ever a case in history in which the iniquitous are overthrown, but the righteous justly rejoice. As some one has said, The cross as the hope and refuge of repentant sinners, is Gods chief witness against sin.
The conclusion of this chapter I am like a green olive-tree in the house of God; I trust in the lovingkindness of God for ever and ever. I will give Thee thanks for ever, because Thou hast done it; and I will hope in Thy Name, for it is good, in the presence of Thy saints (Psa 52:8-9, A. S. V.) is not a mere expression of Phariseeism. On the contrary, it is the voice of gratitude that one has been kept, and of decision, concerning continued trust, together with that natural burst of praise that breaks from the lips of him, who rightly pleads and rightly interprets Gods acts in dealing with men.
From this review of the end of the evil man and this personal appreciation of Divine favor it is easy for the Psalmist to pass to the
FRUITFULNESS OF FOLLY
Psalms 5354 deal with that subject.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity; there is none that doeth good.
God looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.
Every one of them is gone back; they are together become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up My people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.
There were they in great fear, where no fear was; for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee; thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them.
Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of His people Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
Save me, O God, by Thy Name, and judge me by Thy strength.
Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth;
For strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul; they have not set God before them. Selah.
Behold, God is mine helper; the Lord is with them that uphold my soul.
He shall reward evil unto mine enemies; cut them off in Thy truth.
I will freely sacrifice unto Thee. I will praise Thy Name, O Lord, for it is good.
For He hath delivered me out of all trouble; and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies (Psalms 53-54).
There are those who would imagine that the Psalmist forgot himself, and on occasions did what the average preacher does, palmed off an old sermon. If you make a comparison between this fifty-third Psalm and Psalm fourteen, you will discover more than resemblance. There is practical identity, clear repetition; but the fifty-fourth Psalm presents entirely new material; and its pathetic plea for salvation, follows logically from the evident effects of infidelity. The man who sees others swelled with skepticism, begs to be saved from a kindred experience. The man who sees others plunging into corruption, and consuming even saints in their mad course of immorality, longs for deliverance from all such danger. God and God alone is his help, and God and God alone is his adequate defense. The grace of the past is his ground of hope for the future; and as he reflects upon the multitude of times that he himself has been delivered out of trouble, he can but praise the Name of the Lord.
Beyond all question, this chapter voices a memory of dark days for David. It is supposed to have been written about the time of Absaloms rebellion, when a conspiracy was formed against him, and to have involved the participation in that rebellion of his most familiar and trusted friend, Ahithophel. Those unhappy incidents of life explain many of the pathetic expressionsthe voice of the enemy, the oppression of the wicked, the betrayal of a friend, a man mine equal, my guide and mine acquaintance, one with whom he had taken sweet counsel and with whom he had walked to the house of God. The whole setting fits the circumstance of Absaloms rebellion and Ahithophels betrayal.
Few men ever occupy positions of importance without suffering after a kindred manner. The oppression of natural enemies is comparatively easy to be borne; but the betrayal of friends, that, indeed, is a grief that takes the heart out of one and tends to shake his confidence in humanity itself; tempts one to say, No man can be trusted, and to doubt the reality of unselfish and untarnished affection.
Such an experience, however, leads the truly intelligent to fall back on God and God alone. Thats what the Psalmist does. Listen to his language and learn well the lesson. The words fall hard, upon disappointment, deception, betrayal.
As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me (Psa 55:16).
Evening and morning and at noon will I pray, and cry aloud; and He shall hear my voice.
He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: for there were many with me.
God shall hear and afflict them. * *
Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
But Thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in Thee (Psa 55:17-23).
After all, its a good conclusion! The man who can take his eyes off the perfidy of his fellows and turn them to the faithfulness of his Heavenly Father, will never be fully discouraged.
From the old Baptist Hymnal, we used to sing,
Zion stands with hills surrounded,
Zion, kept by power Divine;
All her foes shall be confounded,
Though the world in arms combine;
Happy Zion,
What a favored lot is thine!
Every human tie may perish;
Friend to friend unfaithful prove;
Mothers cease their own to cherish;
Heaven and earth at last remove;
But no changes
Can attend Jehovahs love.
In the furnace God may prove thee,
Thence to bring thee forth more bright,
But can never cease to love thee;
Thou art precious in His sight;
God is with thee,
God, thine everlasting light.
This leads to a pledge of further praise (Psalms 56-57). Each of these opens with a prayer for mercy, but each of them moves to a burst of praise.
Be merciful unto me, O God; for man would swallow me up (Psa 56:1).
About a moment later
In God I have put my trust; I will not fear; what flesh can do unto me (Psa 56:4).
Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me; for my soul trusteth in Thee; yea, in the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge.
Until these; calamities be overpast (Psa 57:1).
My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise.
Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp; I myself will awake early.
I will praise Thee, O Lord, among the people; I will sing unto Thee among the nations (Psa 57:7-9).
H. M. Lischer was thinking along kindred lines with the Psalmist, when he wrote:
Upward I lift mine eyes;
From God is all my aid;
The God who built the skies,
And earth and nature made;
God is the tower to which I fly;
His grace is nigh in every hour.
My feet shall never slide
And fall in fatal snares,
Since God, my guard and guide,
Defends me from my fears;
Those wakeful eyes that never sleep
Shall Israel keep when dangers rise.
Hast Thou not given Thy Word
To save my soul from death?
And I can trust Thee, Lord,
To keep my mortal breath;
Ill go and come, nor fear to die,
Till from on high Thou call me home.
RECOVERY FROM SIN
Psalms 56, 59, 60 of this Book present the solemn phases of sin, but the grace and justice of God in saving His own not alone from sin but from the sinful.
In Psalms 58 Gods judgment rejoices the righteous. From Psa 58:2 to Psa 58:9 there is a picture of the wicked and of their wickedness; and a prayer that God will bring them to judgment. In Psa 58:10 and Psa 58:11 the Psalmist anticipates the question and declares the righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily He is a God that judgest in the earth.
This figure may seem revolting to a people who are living at peace with their fellows, but it comes to have its meaning in the day when the violent seem about to capture the earth, and the wicked smite with the poison of the serpent.
Under all ordinary circumstances we grieve when a man is slain and his blood stains the earth but when such conditions arise as exist in Chicago now, when gangsters will line up men against the wall, seven in number, and shoot them dead as they stand huddled in fear and obedient to the command of a bandit, who will grieve if those men are overtaken and sent to the gallows; or even if the righteousness of the law obtain and they fall before the officers bullets? Gentleness, compassion and tears, these are for times of peace; but justice is essential when the violent threaten society and the wicked work their will against the same.
Gods judgment avenges the righteous. Hear Psalms 59:
Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me.
Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men.
For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord.
They run and prepare themselves without my fault: awake to help me, and behold.
Thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.
They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.
Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: for who, say they, doth heart
But Thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them; Thou shalt have all the heathen in derision.
Because of his strength will I wait upon Thee: for God is my defense.
The God of my mercy shall prevent me: God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies.
Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by Thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield.
For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak.
Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah.
And at evening let them return, and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.
Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied.
But I will sing of Thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of Thy mercy in the morning: for Thou hast been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble.
Unto Thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defense, and the God of my mercy.
Here again the exercise of Divine power in judgment in behalf of the righteous is not only defensible, but is essential to the justification of Deity itself. The God who permits wickedness to stalk the land without speaking its rebuke, or smiting its head, would be a questionable God. There are instances in history that tend to show that God is the same yesterday, and to day and for ever. Narcissus was Bishop of Jerusalem, a man of faultless life, so John Foster tells us, faithful in rebuking vice of every kind, but was falsely accused. His first accuser, in closing his testimony on one occasion said, If these things are not so, may I be consumed by fire. A second accuser said, If these things are not so, may I be overtaken by some horrible disease. A third said, If these things are not so, may God smite me blind. And Foster continues, The day came when the house of the first was consumed by fire and he and his family perished in flames, and yet another day when the second was smitten and suffered long under a loathsome disease; and the third seeing the terrible end of his companions confessed his iniquity and wept over his crimes until his sight was utterly gone.
Finally, Gods power shall bring victory to the righteous.
O God, Thou hast cast us off, Thou hast been displeased; O turn Thyself to us again.
Thou hast made the earth to tremble; Thou hast broken it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh.
Thou hast shewed Thy people hard things: Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment.
Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah.
That Thy beloved may be delivered; save with Thy right hand, and hear me.
God hath spoken in His holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Suecoth.
Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is the strength of Mine head; Judah is My lawgiver.
Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe; Philistia, triumph thou because of Me.
Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?
Wilt not Thou, O God, which hadst cast us off? and Thou, O God, which didst not go out with our armies?
Give us help from trouble; for vain is the help of man.
Through God we shall do valiantly: for He it is that shall tread down our enemies (Psa 60:1-12).
It is a glorious conclusion! Through God we shall be victorious; for it is He that shall tread down our enemies. In all the conflicts of life, the one thing that men need beyond all things else is the favor of God. If conquest is to be ours, if we are to come through victorious against them that would persecute and hurt us, if we are to triumph against trouble, vain is the help of man, he will fail us, but our God, never! If we are to have a victory against that impersonal enemy, and yet that most terrible of all, sin, He alone can give it to us.
God of our strength, enthroned above,The source of life, the fount of love;O let devotions sacred flame,Our souls awake to praise Thy Name
To Thee we lift our joyful eyes,To Thee on wings of faith we rise;Come Thou, and let Thy courts on earth Ring out Thy praise in holy mirth.
God of our strength from day to day,Direct our thoughts and guide our way;O may our hearts united be,In sweet communion, Lord, with Thee.
God of our strength, on Thee we call;God of our hope, our light, our all, Thy Name we praise, Thy love adore,Our Rock, our Shield for evermore.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
INTRODUCTION
THE superscription informs us both as to the author of the psalm, and the occasion of its composition. To the Chief Musician, a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. The contents of the psalm accord with the superscription on both points. For the history of the painful circumstances, see 2 Samuel 11 and 2Sa. 12:1-14.
That the psalm is addressed To the Chief Musician shows that it was not merely a private confession of the poets guilt to God, but a public expression of his penitence. Hengstenberg, quoting the Marburg Bible, says: David wrote this psalm not for himself alone to be used as a prayer, but for those also who had charge of the temple music, that he might again edify, by his repentance, the people of God, whom he had offended by his sin; and till then he had no rest in his bosom, as he confesses in Psa. 32:2. This publicity in the confession of the sin was quite as great a work of Gods grace in David, as the depth of his knowledge in regard to it. Nature must have struggled hard against it. But the design of the publicity he gives us in Psa. 51:13. He would, through his repentance, lead others to the same.
THE PENITENTS PSALM
This psalm, says Robertson, written three thousand years ago, might have been written yesterday: it describes the vicissitudes of spiritual life in an Englishman as truly as of a Jew. Not of an age, but for all time. We have here
I. The Penitents Confession. Confession is not a single act. It comprehends, at least, three things: (.) A right estimate of sin. The true penitent regards sin not as mere misdirection, or the result of imperfect development, but as the guilty violation of a holy law. (.) A right feeling in relation to sin. The sincere penitent loathes sin, and grieves for having grieved his God. (.) Right conduct in relation to sin. He endeavours to forsake sin, and to follow after holiness. The Psalmist in his confession
1. Recognises the evil of sin. He regards it
(1). As an unrighteous thing. Mine iniquity. Sin is a reversal of true moral relations and order.
(2.) As a breach of moral law. My transgressions. By his sins he had violated the holy laws of the supreme and gracious Sovereign.
(3.) As a defiling thing. He felt himself utterly polluted by his sins, and asks again and again for cleansing. Thus David recognises the essential evil of sin, and its injurious influence upon human life and character. He does not attempt to palliate its wickedness; but exhibits unmistakably its blackness, and deformity, and blasting power.
2. Recognises the sin as his own. My transgressions mine iniquity my sin. We are prone to try to shift the responsibility of our sins from ourselves to others. We blame the circumstances in which we were placed, or the temptations by which we were assailed, or the tendencies which we have inherited, or the training which we have received. But of this we find nothing in this penitential psalm. David feels that the sin and guilt of his crimes were his, and his only. I acknowledge my transgression, &c. I have sinned, &c. His sins appeared so aggravated to him, that he could only express his feeling in this respect by saying that he was born in sin. As Robertson says, He lays on himself the blame of a tainted nature, instead of that of a single fault: not a murder only, but of a murderous nature. Conceived in sin. From his first moments up till then, he saw sinsinsin: nothing but sin. Sin and guilt cannot be transferred from one to another. If I do evil, the guilt is my own. Every man shall bear his own burden. The Divinely-awakened conscience ever feels thisconfesses thissays, I acknowledge my transgressions.
3. Regards sin as hostile to God. Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, &c. The Most High has no complicity with evil. Sin is ever to Him the abominable thing which He hates. He brings good out of evil, overrules evil for the accomplishment of His glorious purposes. Yet He is not the author of evil, but its sworn and uncompromising antagonist. His laws in both the material and spiritual realms are against it; His administration is against it; His great redemption is against it; His essential nature is utterly opposed to it. True penitence feels this, and says, Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned. David had sinned grievously against human society; but it was the fact that his offences were wrongs against his God that chiefly impressed and distressed him. All sins against man are sins against God also. You cannot harm your fellow-man without wronging God. Every blow struck against humanity is a blow struck against God. A fact this pregnant with solemn suggestions. Thus the confession of this royal penitent expresses the judgments and emotions of the penitent heart to day.
II. The penitents prayer. The Psalmist prays for,
1. Forgiveness of his sins. Have mercy upon me, O God, &c. (Psa. 51:1). Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Confession and forgiveness are inseparably connected (Psa. 32:5; Luk. 17:3-4; 1Jn. 1:9). Confession is not the efficient cause of forgiveness, but it is its indispensable condition. It is a necessary basis of forgiveness. The figures here used to denote forgiveness give clearness and prominence to the idea of its completeness. Blot out my transgressions, blot out all mine iniquities: as the account of a debt is wiped away or cancelled by the creditor, or as a cloud is dispelled by the beams of the sun. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins. Hide Thy face from my sins; do not regard them; cast all my sins behind Thy back; remember them against me no more for ever.
2. Cleansing and renewal of his spirit. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Mark the thoroughness of this desire. Not only must sin be blotted out, but the sinner himself must be washed and cleansed. There must not be merely a change of state, but a change of nature. Not only must the debt be forgiven, but all disposition to contract further debt must be eradicated. All true and lasting change must be made in the nature. The heart is the seat of all wrong. Hence no prayer will avail that does not come from the heart, and express the deepest and holiest aspirations of the soul. Such was Davids prayer.Parker.
3. Restoration of the joy of salvation. Make me to hear joy and gladness. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation. Here are three ideas
(1.) The experience of the salvation of God is joyous. The joy of assured forgiveness, of the Divine favour, of exalted hopes, &c.
(2.) By indulgence in sin man forfeits this joy. David did so.
(3.) By sincere penitence and prayer those who have lost this joy may regain it.
4. Preservation from sin and ruin. Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy holy Spirit from me. Uphold me with Thy free Spirit. Davids great fear was that God might abandon him, might leave him to himself. To the penitent soul exile from God would be the deepest misery. And feeling his weakness and proneness to fall into sin, the Psalmist entreats God to uphold and keep him. Such are the main points in this penitents prayer. We shall do well to heed one feature of it to which Robertson gives clear and forcible expression. This prayer is not the trembling of a craven spirit in anticipation of torture, but the agonies of a noble one in the horror of being evil. Do you fancy that men like David, shuddering in sight of evil, dreaded a material hell? I venture to say, into true penitence the idea of punishment never enters. If it did, it would be almost a relief: but, oh! those moments in which a selfish act has appeared more hideous than any pain which the fancy of a Dante could devise! when the idea of the strife of self-will in battle with the loving will of God prolonged for ever, has painted itself to the imagination as the real Infinite Hell! when self-concentration and the extinction of love in the soul has been felt as the real damnation of the Devil-nature!
III. The penitents resolution. David resolves that, when the joy of salvation is restored to him
1. He will seek the conversion of sinners. Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways. The forgiven penitent will seek to lead others to the source whence he has derived his blessing, that they also may partake of it. The ways of God which David would teach transgressors are
(1) The way which He would have sinners pursue,the way of penitence. And
(2) The way which He pursues towards sinners,the way of rich and free forgiving mercy. Now the converted man is fitted to teach transgressors these ways. He knows them; for he has trodden the one and experienced the other. He alone is fitted to teach these ways. It is essential that he who would teach others the way of salvation knows that way experimentally himself. He is also impelled to teach transgressors these ways. Gratitude urges him to do so, forbids him to be silent. He must tell others of the blessings he has received, and urge them to seek them for themselves. We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, &c.
2. He will worship God. My tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness. My mouth shall show forth Thy praise. For Thou desirest not sacrifice, &c. (See The Hom. Com. on Psa. 40:6-8; Psa. 50:7-15.)
(1.) The one great sacrifice for sin has been offered and accepted, and is gloriously perfect (Heb. 10:1-18).
(2.) Our sacrifice of praise, our thank-offerings of gifts to the cause of God, are worthless in His sight unless they proceed from feelings of sincere devotion and gratitude.
(3.) When the heart is moved by penitence, and gratitude, and reverence, it will offer itself in praise to God, and in service in His cause. When the heart is truly sacrificed to God, all other possessions will be freely offered to Him. On this point, the testimony of Psa. 51:19 is conclusive. David would not content himself with offering the sacrifices prescribed by the ceremonial law, but would offer himself to God in humblest penitence and heartiest praise. This self-sacrifice is the very soul of all acceptable sacrifices. David anticipates, as a result of his restoration, that
3. The whole Church would praise God (Psa. 51:18-19). He feared lest, by reason of his sins, the Divine judgments should fall upon the city and kingdom, or the Divine favour be withdrawn from them. No man stands alone. The sin of one man may lead to the injury or even to the ruin of many others. David, therefore, implores the manifestation of the Divine favour in granting them security and prosperity. And he promises that then acceptable sacrificesthe costliest sacrifices offered by sincere worshippersshall be presented unto Him.
NOTEThe exposition of this psalm might be suitably divided into three discourses,one, on The Confession; another, on The Petitions; and the third, on The Resolutions of the Penitent.
AN INDISPENSABLE PRAYER FOR EVERY ONE
(Psa. 51:2. Cleanse me from my sin.)
Consider
I. The need you have to offer this prayer.
1. You cannot cleanse yourselves from sin. The guilt of your sin you cannot blot out. The pollution of your sin you are equally unable to take away.
2. You cannot live happily without you are cleansed from sin. Surely, as the shadow follows the substance, sorrow follows sin, and joy holiness.
3. You cannot die peacefully unless you are cleansed from sin. The sting of death is sin.
4. You cannot be acquitted at the Divine tribunal except you are cleansed from sin. We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, &c.
5. You cannot be admitted into heaven without you are cleansed from your sin. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, &c.
6. You cannot escape hell unless you are cleansed from your sin. There is no world between heaven and hell. The wicked shall be turned into hell, &c.
II. The requisites you must possess to present this prayer successfully.
1. You must be alive to your sin. Men must be convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, before they will be anxious to be saved. Where guilt is not felt, pardon will not be desired.
2. You must see that your sin has been committed against God. Every evil deed perpetrated is done against the Almighty. This David felt.
3. You must take the blame of your sin to yourselves. The common practice is to attribute it to the tempter. Adam laid it on his wife, and Eve cast it on the serpent. Like them we seek to exculpate ourselves. But there must be the impression that we are utterly inexcusable, &c.
4. You must be desirous to part with your sin. Unwilling as men are to forsake their vicious course, they would fain be quit of its dire consequences. But he who will have his sin must have its evils. The cause must be removed before its effects can.
5. You must be sorry for your sin. There is a fitness between contrition and pardon; but there is none between impenitence and remission. The penitent are in a proper state to be forgiven; the impenitent are not.
6. You must have faith in the cleansing efficacy of Christs blood. Requisite as are the foregoing to your being in a proper condition to ask or to have the blessings spoken of, they cannot, if relied on, secure it, as there is not the slightest merit in them. The only merit on the ground of which we can be redeemed from all iniquity is in Christ, and in Him alone. For Him to be your redemption you must have faith in His blood.
In conclusion, have you prevailingly urged this petition?JOHN SMITH. Abridged from The Congregational Pulpit.
THE CHIEF EVIL OF SIN
Psa. 51:4. Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.
Since the crimes of the Psalmist were of that class which are most directly against society, and since he appears at the time to have regarded them in that very relation, what is the import of the phrase, Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned? The following is the only possible solution. Notwithstanding the deep sense of his crime, as viewed in its social relation, he had such an overwhelming sense of its enormity as committed against God, that it threw into comparative obscurity the injury to man. This language, therefore, dictated by the Divine Spirit, must afford ample authority for the following doctrine:
The evil of sin consists chiefly in its being committed against God.
This doctrine does not, in the least degree, invalidate the obligations of mortals to each other; or diminish the guilt of crimes viewed merely in their social relation. The man who considers the chief evil of sin to consist in a violation of Divine obligations, has as strong a view of social obligations, as he who overlooks all duty to God, and makes human injury the only criterion of guilt. That sin is an evil, so far as it infringes on the rights and happiness of fellow-mortals, is admitted by all. But the Word of God compels us to believe, that the same transgressions are an immensely greater evil considered as offences against God. Should any one ask, Why is it a thousand-fold worse for me to murder my neighbour than if God had not forbidden it? I answer,
1. Because God is your Maker. We who are parents claim the right to command our children; and, when they disobey, we place the main point of their offending in simple disobedience. And what is the aggravation of violating a parents authority, compared with that of rebellion against the Eternal Father of our spirits?
2. God sustains us. From the dawn of our existence to this hour, He has been mindful of us, with more than a parents tender care. Amid countless dangers, He has cast His shield about us.
3. He has encompassed us with countless blessings. For us the rivers flow, the oceans roll, the clouds distil, and the seasons keep their appointed times. His sun is made to light us by dayHis moon and stars by night. To shield us from cold, He has provided raimentfrom heat, a shadefrom storms, a shelter.
4. He has prepared a heaven for our eternal home. It is the abode of His own infinite blessedness, the palace of His glory, and the home of holy angels.
5. When we had forfeited this bright heaven, and plunged ourselves in guilt and woe, God gave His own dear Son to redeem us. To achieve this work, it was needful that the Saviour take upon Himself the form of a servant, be made under the law, pass a life of suffering and scorn, and, finally, be crucified by wicked hands. Yet to all this He submitted, not by constraint, but willinglynay, joyfully.
6. God has given us a revelation comprising the knowledge and motives requisite for the attainment of this great salvation. And how is this sacred volume filled with entreaties to sinful man to flee from the wrath to come, and lay hold on the hope set before him!
7. He bears long with us, as a race of guilty beings, and as individuals. Each spared sinner is a perfect demonstration of the infinite goodness of God. And the aged impenitent is as great a monument of the Divine forbearance as he is of guilt. Reflect, then, that against this same God you have committed every sin that has polluted your life. Under this conviction, if your conscience be not dead, you cannot but exclaim with the Psalmist, Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, &c.
From the foregoing we may draw the following inferences:
1. The punishment denounced against the wicked is manifestly just.
2. There is not so great a difference as men often imagine between different kinds of sin. I would not deny that some sins in themselves are more heinous in the sight of God than others. Nor would I at all intimate an equality of guilt among transgressors possessing different degrees of light, or actuated by different degrees of malignity. But we have seen that the chief evil of sin consists in its violation of Divine obligation. Let no one, then, speak of small sinslittle offencesand assign as his reason that he injures no one but himself,that he does not infringe on the rights of his fellow-men. It is idle and delusive and impious to indulge in thus comparing and extenuating our crimes of rebellion against the infinite Sovereign. Each sin, thus viewed, is of magnitude sufficient to sink a world.
3. The most upright man is a great sinner. Suppose him perfectly honestexculpate him from falsehoodand say that he never injured the character or feelings of any mortal. A human tribunal would then acquit him. But has he kept all Gods commandments? &c.
4. We are taught by this doctrine our need of Christs atonement. And the glorious work is accomplished, and a ready pardon offered, &c.
5. We see the nature of true conviction. It consists in seeing and feeling the evil of sin as committed against God. Fear of punishment is often mistaken for conviction; but it is really not even a necessary part of it. Real conviction does not cease at conversion, but increases with our growth in grace and knowledge of God. David, Isaiah, and Paul appeared to feel it with increasing emotion, and to loathe and abhor themselves, and repent in dust and ashes.Ralph Emerson, A.M. Abridged from The Preachers Treasury.
DAVIDS PRAYER
(Psa. 51:7.)
A sermon useful when it goes with a man to his closet, as well as affects him for the present. Nathans to David. Hyssopalluding to the cleansing the leper (Lev. 14:1-7). Or to the waters of separation (Numbers 19) Observe:
I. When God leads us to reflect on our sins, we feel ourselves awfully polluted. David in the text. (Job. 42:1-6; Psa. 38:4; Isa. 6:1-5; Isa. 64:6; Eze. 20:43; Luk. 15:17-19; Luk. 18:13; Act. 2:36-37; Tit. 3:3.) O my soul! O my hearers! reflect
II. The blood of Jesus Christ is even more than a remedy for the foulest iniquities. Whiter than snow (Rom. 5:20-21). How?
1. As it makes the penitent more acceptable to God, and more secure in His favour than Adam in Paradise. (Luk. 15:7; Luk. 15:22; Luk. 15:32; Rom. 8:1, &c.; Eph. 1:6; Eph. 5:27; Col. 3:3-4.)
2. As it excites them to obey God in resisting temptation more than Adam. (Gen. 3:11-13, compared with Eph. 6:11-17; Rev. 12:10-11.)
3. As God will be more glorified in recovering a fallen sinner, than in making man upright. As Redeemer than as Creator. As the God of grace in the Gospel than as Law-Giver. (Isa. 44:22-23; Luk. 2:10-14; 2Co. 3:7-11; 1Pe. 1:11-12.)
4. As the happiness of the penitent will be ultimately greater than that of Adam in Paradise. (Rev. 7:9, &c.)
III. This remedy becomes effectual by an application to our own case. See text. As foodphysicclothing, &c. Noahs ark. The brazen serpent. The cities of refuge.
IV. The application of this remedy to ourselves is to be sought in prayer. See text. (Psa. 106:4-5; Psa. 130:1-6; Luk. 18:13.)
V. Though God has pardoned the penitent he can scarcely believe it, and will be applying for pardon again and again. Thus David in this psalm, though Nathan had told him of Gods forgiveness (2Sa. 12:13).
USES.
1. Alarm to sinners impenitent and unpardoned in their sins.
2. Caution to the self-righteous.
3. Bless God for the cleansing blood of Jesus, and use it to Gods glory,to your own salvation.Fr.
DAVIDS PRAYER AND VOW
(Psa. 51:10-13.)
There is an essential difference between the prayers offered up under the influence of habit merely, and those which are induced by a deep sense of guilt, dependence, and want. When David uttered the words before us, he felt that he needed the grace and mercy of his Maker,consequently his requests were simple, important, and earnest. Perhaps there is no one here that has fallen into sin such as that which the Psalmist had committedstill, there Is no one but may offer up his prayer with the greatest propriety.
I. Let us glance at the petitions. Create in me a clean heart, O God. The Psalmist felt that his heart was Defiledthat it was not in his power to cleanse ithe therefore prayed that God would perform the work renew a right spirit within me. These words refer to the temper of the mind. The Psalmist knew that his was wrong; and, consequently prayed that God would renew a right spirit within him. If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His. Cast me not away from Thy presence. In the presence of God is fulness of joy: therefore, to be cast away from His presence is to be deprived of happiness. Take not Thy holy spirit from me. The Spirit of God helpeth our infirmities: therefore, to be deprived of the Spirit is to be deprived of help. The Holy Spirit is our Comforter: therefore, to be deprived of the Spirit is to be deprived of comfort. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation. The knowledge of salvation produces joy,this joy the Psalmist had experienced,it was not his portion when he uttered these words,he therefore desired its restoration. Uphold me with Thy free spirit. Having experienced the sad consequences of falling into sin, the Psalmist here prays that when restored he might be upheld, and prevented from falling again.
II. Notice the predicated results of a gracious answer; or the connection between piety and usefulness. Then will I teach transgressors Thy way; and sinners shall be converted unto Thee. He that enjoys the blessings of salvation, can speak on religious subjects with more feeling, and, consequently, with more effect than others. This may remind Christians, and especially Christian ministers, that eminent piety is exceedingly desirable, not only on their own account, but also that they may be qualified for extensive usefulness.The Young Ministers Companion.
THE JOYS OF SALVATION
(Psa. 51:12.)
The joy of Thy salvation.
It is Gods salvation. It is no dreamy following of the upward instincts and aspirations of the nature; no trying to be just, pure, and good, and then, if we fail, and become selfish, sensual, and devilish, forgetting the failure and trying again, always trying, always hoping, with a vague belief that though sin always gets the better of us, there is some good thing in us which, after all, cannot be lost. Neither is it a vague reliance on Gods goodness and mercy, a feeling that He is a Father, and cannot, therefore, doom His children to despair and death. These dreams and hopes are the salvations which men provide for themselves: but they are not, nor are they like, Gods salvation.
Gods salvation rests upon the knowledge of Gods Himself, as He has revealed HimselfHis nameHis wordHis promisesHis work; whereby, not by our own dreams or hopes, but by His declaration, We have strong consolation, &c. It is one thing to feel that He is a Father, and must be full of love to His children; it is another thing to hear Him say, I am a Father; I love as no human father can love, &c. (Joh. 3:16-17). It is one thing to trust vaguely to Gods goodness for pardon; it is another thing to hear Him say, Come now, and let us reason together, &c.; and to follow His guiding finger till we behold the Lamb of God, &c. It is one thing to have our hopes and instincts looking on towards immortality, &c.; it is another thing to see life and immortality brought to light by the Gospel, to stand by the unsealed tomb of Lazarus and hear such awful words as these, I am the resurrection, and the life: &c. (Joh. 11:25-44; Joh. 14:1-5; Joh. 20:17).
The man who has received these truths from God, these gifts of God, and knows why and whom he has believed, is the man in whom the joys of Gods salvation abound. He has Gods salvation; his ground is the everlasting rock, the Word of God. What are its joys?
I. The joy of a sufficient and final answer to the self-upbraidings of a guilty soul. The sense of guilt, the dread of doom, must be disposed of, before there can be any freedom, any upright, manly activity, any pure and lasting joy. The man who wakes up to comprehend the breadth and the depth of Gods law, stands self-condemned. All refuges of lies have vanished, the naked realities appear, and his sin clouds over utterly the heaven of Gods love. The sense of guilt torments him. O miserable man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? This question of the purging of guilt is the fundamental question of all the religions of heathendomof all simple, untutored souls (Mic. 6:6-8). To this questioning there is but one joyful answer: I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, &c. (Rom. 7:25; Rom. 8:1-4; Rom. 8:33-39). The burden falls off; the darkness is chased by dawn.
II. The joy of a portion which satisfies the hearts largest conceptions and desires. My soul panteth for God, for the living God. There is that in man which the knowledge of the living God only can satisfy, which, having God, has all things in Him. We know what it is to love the creatureto feel that the love and communion of some fond, fair idol would make the bliss of earth, the bliss of eternity. He has the joys of Gods salvation who has done with idolswho loves only that which has eternal beauty and fairness in the creature, and finds that he has the very substance of all that may be loved in the Lord. The commerce between the believing soul and Christ is the ravishing sweetness of the presentthe hope of unclouded vision, of unbounded communion, is the glorious treasure of the future.
III. The joy of an answer to all the difficulties and perplexities which beset the spirit and the intellect in their progress. I do not say that the believer, in full communion with Christ and with the joys of His salvation, is freed from the mental and the moral cares which beset the path of a souls progress. That joythe joy of knowing that doubt, darkness, and the anguish of mental and moral conflict, are done with for everwe shall realise when we can take up the song, For I am now ready to be offered, &c. (2Ti. 4:6-8). We must win our creed by mental conflict, we must win our crown by moral conflict; hut the joy of Gods salvation is tasted by those who feel that the great central truths, at any rate, are sure. I know whom I have believed. I have found the centre; to explore the circumference may be matter of danger, difficulty, suffering, but hope lights the way, the sorrow can never darken into despair. One thing is clear to me, let what will be dark, I know that my Redeemer liveth. There is hope of his knowing all things that is good to know, who has already the mind of Christ.
IV. The joy of having the key to all the mysterious ways of Providence in the world. God writes the record of His Providential government in ciphers. We know the cipher; it is a blank to others. To those who know God it is plain and clear. To the soul well grounded in the conviction, He doeth all things well, there is no mystery. This or that thing may be difficult to understand; but to him who believes, the mystery, at any rate, is dissipatedthe full understanding will come in time. How deadly is the difficulty to those who have not found the key in the love of God in Christ, let these passages show: Job. 23:1-9; Job. 11:5-10; Isa. 38:9-19. But we know that all things work together for good, &c. And we believe that God forsaketh not the world in all its agonies and perils, for which the Lord Jesus died. We can even take these sorrows, and make them into joys (Rom. 5:3; 1Pe. 1:7).
V. The joy of victory over death. It is an awful thing to look upon the face of the dead. Where is the spirit which a moment since? &c. The most dread moment of our experience is before usevery one of us. We may have mastered many agonies; we have yet to wrestle with the agony of death. Then the dearest must leave you; alone you must then face your destiny. As the dear forms of earth grow dim, a grander, more beautiful, more glorious form will come shining through the gloom (Psa. 23:4; 1Co. 15:55-58). Absent from the body, present with the Lord.
VI. The joy of living union with God with Christ, with all living and blessed beings, eternally. What is that world? What its speech, its habit, the forms of its life? We know not. The veil hangs over all these (1Jn. 3:2-3). We know; for He is therethe God-man glorified; and the Godman glorified, through trial, suffering, and death, is the key to the life of eternity. This we know, for we see Jesus. We can wait to know more till we see Him unveiled in heaven (1Co. 15:9.).
These are the joys of His salvation, and now they are freely offered to you by the GospelHo! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. Take in your hand NOW the riches that add no sorrow, the joy that leaves no aftertaste of pain; and let the joy of the Lord be your strengthstrength for duty, strength for making known to others the joys of salvation God has given you as your portion.J. Baldwin Brown, B.A. Abridged from Aids to the Development of the Divine Life.
DAVIDS PRAYER
(Psa. 51:14.)
Notice
I. To whom David goes when conviction of sin is brought home to his conscience by the Holy Spirit through the ministry of Nathan.
1. Man shuns and avoids his accuser. It was God who had accused David of his sin. Yet to God he goes with confession of guilt and prayer for forgiveness. When God convinces of sin, turn not away from Him, but, &c.
2. Man shuns and avoids his judge. It was God who had condemned David to suffer in his own family for unholy inroad made on sacred family ties of another. Yet to God he goes. When God lays His hand upon us, let us not turn away from Him who corrects (Heb. 12:10).
II. The spirit and frame of mind in which he approaches God.
1. As regards himselfwith self-abasement. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness. Is he not too hard upon himself? Had he actually slain Uriah? He had slain him by sword of children of Ammon (2Sa. 12:9). True penitent feels he cannot be too hard upon himself. Confesses sin in all its heinousness.
2. As regards Godwith hope in His mercy. Deliver me O od, Thou God of my salvation. Were not God the God of my salvation, access with favour would be for ever denied. But He is the God of whom cometh salvation. And the God of my salvation when I approach Him through Jesus Christ.
III. The prayer of David. Deliver me, &c. All of us must make this prayer our own. The blood-guiltiness of David was on account of murder of Uriah. Blood-guiltiness may be ours in one or other of three ways?
1. If condition not by grace changed, miserable in blood-guiltiness, because crucified Son of God.
2. If any of us stand condemned before God at last, miserable in blood-guiltiness, because condemned suicides. Salvation offered will have been despised. The Spirit resistedChrist rejected.
3. At the last day shall have to answer for others (Gen. 4:9; Pro. 24:11-12).
Is there not need that we say, with David, Deliver me, &c.?
In last clause of text, pious resolve for the future. Delivered from blood-guiltiness, cannot we take up language of Psalmist and say, And my mouth shall sing, &c.? Not our own, but His. The answer of peace comes to us in way of righteousness. Our theme of praise and thanksgiving on earth. And in heaven (Rev. 5:12). What shall I render unto the Lord? (Rom. 12:1).R. C. Billing, B.A. Abridged from The Homiletic Quarterly.
THE PROSPERITY OF ZION SOUGHT
(Psa. 51:18.)
Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion. Consider
I. The importance of the object sought. David prays for the prosperity of Zion.
1. The Church is exposed to many dangers, and needs to be protected by an almighty arm. David probably feared that by his own sin he had brought danger upon Zion; that God might justly manifest His displeasure by giving her into the hand of her enemies, or by withdrawing His favour from her. The Church of Christ needs preservation
(1) from sectarian or denominational strife;
(2) from disunion and discord in individual churches;
(3) from formality;
(4) from prevalent errors. Hence the importance of the prayer.
2. The Church is imperfect, and its prosperity consists in its improvement. Do good in Thy, &c. Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, &c. (Psa. 90:16-17). The prosperity of the Church is promoted
(1) When there is an increasing adherence to those truths on which primitive Christianity was established.
(2) When under the influence of these truths, the citizens of Zion are persevering in holiness. The path of the just is as the shining light, &c.
II. The grounds of encouragement we have in seeking this object. We might refer to some particulars suggested by the words, Thy good pleasure: e.g., () that God is the Founder of His Church; () He established it at the greatest expense. Christ died to redeem it. () In doing good to His Church He is glorifying His Son, who is Head over all things to the Church; () The purposes and promises of God to the Church. But
1. To pray for Zion is a duty enjoined by Divine authority. Pray, said Christ, hallowed be Thy name, &c. The security, improvement, and success of the Church depend upon prayer.
2. God is the hearer of prayer.
III. The manner in which we should reek this object. We may lose blessings through not seeking them aright. Ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss.
1. We should ourselves be identified with the Church. 2. We should feel a deep interest in its welfare.
3. We should be constant in prayer for its prosperity; should seek it in our closets, in our families, &c.
4. We should unite in prayer for this object.
5. We should present our prayers in faith.
6. We should be importunate and fervent in prayer for this object. Conclude by endeavouring to enforce this duty upon Christians.Abridged from an unpublished MS.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Psalms 51
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
The Prayer of a Penitent.
ANALYSIS
Stanza I, Psa. 51:1-4., Petitions for Pardon and Cleansing sustained by Confessions, Condemning Self and Vindicating God. Stanza II., Psa. 51:5-9, In Further Pleading for Pardon, the Psalmist Confronts his own Deep Need and Gods Just Requirements, passing on to Consenting Petitions and Petitions pure and simple. Stanza III., Psa. 51:10-14, Petitions for Renewal, against Banishment and Deprivation, for Restoration and Upholding; urged, with Alternating Hopes and Fears. Stanza IV, Psa. 51:15-19, Assured that Only his Divine Lord can open his Lips, the psalmist Depreciates Accustomed Sacrifices as Inadequate to meet his Own Desperate Case, but prays for Such Prosperity in behalf of Jerusalem as shall make Right Offerings Acceptable.
(Lm.) PsalmBy DavidWhen Nathan the prophet went unto him, when he had gone in unto Bathsheba.
1
Be gracious unto me O God according to thy kindness,
in the multitude of thy compassions blot out my transgressions;
2
Thoroughly wash me from mine iniquity,
and from my sin make me pure.
3
For my transgressions I myself acknowledge,
and my sin is before me continually:
4
Against thee only thee have I sinned,
and that which is wicked in thy sight have I done,
That thou mayest be justified when thou speakest,
be clear when thou enterest into judgment.
5
Lo! in iniquity was I born,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6
Lo! truth thou hast desired in the inward parts,
and in the hidden part thou wouldst cause me to know wisdom.
7
Thou shalt[558] cleanse me from sin with hyssop that I may be Pure
[558] Literally, purge me with hyssop. See Exo. 12:22, Heb. 9:18-22.
thou shalt[559] wash me that I may be whiter than snow.
[559] These verbs thus give utterance to the psalmists faith that God can and will restore himKp. We might almost call these consenting petitions.
8
Thou shalt2 satisfy[560] me with joy and gladness,
[560] So Gt. Cp. Psa. 90:14Gn.
the bones thou hast crushed will exult.
9
Hide thy face from my sins,
and all mine iniquities blot out.
10
A heart that is pure create[561] for me,[562]
[561] Does not imply creation out of nothingBr.,true: always used strictly of the creative power of GodPe.,equally true. The whole spiritual being of the man had fallen into chaosPe. Yet in chaos are the elements which the creative power of God can turn into kosmos.
[562] M.T. adds: O God.
and a spirit that is steadfast renew.[563]
[563] Or: make anew. M.T. adds: within me.
11
Do not cast me away from thy presence,
and thy Holy Spirit do not take from me.
12
Restore to me the joy of thy salvation,
and with a generous spirit shalt thou uphold me.
13
I would fain teach transgressors thy ways,
and sinners unto thee would return.
14
Snatch me away from the guilt of bloodshed[564] O God,[565]
[564] Ml.: from bloods. Guilt of seems necessarily implied; as neither killing nor being killed can be meant as something impending.
[565] M.T. adds (for emphasisDel.) thou God of my salvation. Too long a line for Br., who conjectures Yahweh instead of O God. The additional words are in both Sep. and Vul.
my tongue will ring out thy righteousness.
15
Sovereign Lord! my lips shalt thou open,
and my mouth will declare thy praise.
16
For thou wilt not delight[566] in peace-offering,[567]
[566] As futures, these verbs readily lend themselves to the restriction: in my case.
[567] M.T. adds: that I should give it.
Ascending-sacrifice will not please:3
17
The peace-offerings of God are a spirit broken,
a heart broken and crushed[568]
[568] M.T. adds: O God.
thou wilt not despise.[569]
[569] How natural, that friends of the injured should despise a repentance which, however sincere, could never be the restoration of innocence and life.
18
Do good in thy favour unto Zion,
thou shalt build the walls of Jerusalem:
19
Then wilt thou delight in the sacrifices of righteousness,[570]
[570] M.T. adds: ascending-sacrifices and entire offerings.
then shall ascend on thine altar young bulls.
(Lm.) To the Chief Musician.
PARAPHEASE
Psalms 51
(Written after Nathan the prophet had come to inform David of Gods judgment against him because of his adultery with Bathsheba, and his murder of Uriah, her husband.)
O loving and kind God, have mercy. Have pity upon me and take away the awful stain of my transgressions.
2 Oh, wash me, cleanse me from this guilt. Let me be pure again.
3 For I admit my shameful deedit haunts me day and night.
4 It is against You and You alone I sinned, and did this terrible thing. You saw it all, and Your sentence against me is just.
5 But I was born a sinner, yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.
6 You deserve honesty from the heart; yes, utter sincerity and truthfulness. Oh, give me this wisdom.
7 Sprinkle me with the cleansing blood[571] and I shall be clean again. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
[571] Literally, purge me with hyssop. See Exo. 12:22, Heb. 9:18-22.
8 And after You have punished me, give me back my joy again.
9 Dont keep looking at my sinserase them from Your sight.
10 Create in me a new, clean heart, O God, filled with clean thoughts and right desires.
11 Dont toss me aside, banished forever from Your presence. Dont take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me again the joy of Your salvation, and make me willing to obey You.
13 Then I will teach Your ways to other sinners, and theyguilty like mewill repent and return to You.
14, 15 Dont sentence me to death. O my God, You alone can rescue me. Then I will sing of Your forgiveness,[572] for my lips will be unsealedoh, how I will praise You.
[572] Literally, righteousness.
16 You dont want penance;[573] if You did, how gladly I would do it! You arent interested in offerings burned before You on the altar.
[573] Literally, a sacrifice.
17 It is a broken spirit You wantremorse and penitence. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not ignore.
18 And Lord, dont punish Israel for my sinshelp Your people and protect Jerusalem.[574]
[574] Literally, Do good in Your good pleasure unto Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 And when my heart is right,[575] then You will rejoice in the good that I do[576] and in the bullocks I bring to sacrifice upon Your altar.
[575] Implied.
[576] Literally, then you will delight in the sacrifice of righteousness.
EXPOSITION
The lesson of the First Psalm is, Blessed is the man who has not sinned. The lesson of the Thirty Second, is, Blessed is the man who, though he has sinned, has been forgiven. The lesson of this psalm is, That the removal of sin by pardon and purification is so difficult, that none but God can accomplish it. This ultimate lesson is here so taught as to make it deeply impressive. There is in this psalm no cheap promise of amendmentin fact no promise at all, until, by every form of supplication, God himself has been importuned to grant deliverance from the condemnation and stain and power of sin.
Of all the one hundred and fifty Psalms, this is pre-eminently the Penitential Psalm. There are others; but this is the chief. In fact, throughout all the Bible, this prayer for pardon stands pre-eminent. It is all prayer, and its prayer is so personal, so comprehensive, so sustained, that it naturally serves for all time as a fund of feeling and storehouse of words, to help all petitioners who are craving for pardon at the hands of Infinite Love. It includes no fewer than seventeen distinct petitions, two of which are repeated, so as to total nineteen; and these are urged with great fulness and urgency of pleading. Many of the petitions are winged with considerations which at once embolden the petitioner and present pleas for a favourable answer: according to thy kindnessin the multitude of thy compassionsthat I may be purethat I may be whiter than snow; coming down to physical results, the bones thou hast crushed will exult; going out to the good of others, sinners unto thee would return.
The STRUCTURE of the psalm is worth notice. After the historical occasion, which the whole psalm sustains, the petitioner leads off with four petitions, the first general, then three specific, touching transgressions, iniquity, sin. These are followed by frank confession, the psalmist condemning himself, and vindicating his Divine Judge, before whom he feels himself to be arraigned; succeeded by two discoveries (lo! lo!) both of which form an aggravation of the condition of the supplianthe comes of a corrupted stock, and has to do with a God whose requirements are exacting. He is thus driven back to petitions for Divine mercy and help as his only hope, three of which are consenting petitionsthou shalt cleanse, wash, satisfy, which have all the appearance of being a laying hold of promises expressed or implied, and an accepting of the Divine method of restoration; the two remaining petitions being the bare imperatives of urgencyHide, blot out.
Having devoted two stanzas (twenty lines) mainly to entreaties for pardon, the psalmist now goes more deeply into the need for renewal. His need is for a heartmind, inner manthat is pure from the trail and stain of sin; and for a spirita directing inward energythat is constant in its action, in holding him unwaveringly to the higher ends of life. The supply of a need so deep must come from God: the offender has no hope in himself. Hence his prayer: create, renew or make anew. The precise nature of such Divine action need not perplex us. It may be said, that to re-create a man is a greater work than to create him. And yet, if creation itself does not necessarily include the production of new material, but rather the new disposal and fashioning of the old, as the history of bara plainly shows (see especially Numbers 16); much more must it be so in re-creation, which is the new fashioning of the same man, and not the making of another independent being. Personal identity must remain. But herein lies the supreme wonder of the new creationthat with the preservation of personal identity, should be harmonised the new fashioning of its moral character. To remember the sin of the past, and yet no longer to feel its fascination: this is indeed a wonderful thing. To own responsibility for the past, and yet no longer to dread capital punishment: this is another wonder, equally great. Both wonders demand the creative energy of God for their production.
Probably this is no mere academical discussion; although, it must be owned, that the succeeding deprecatory petitions of the psalmist form links with a better past than with most men can be assumed to have existed; for it is much to be feared that heaven does not lie about all human beings in their infancy. The psalmist, at any rate, knew what it was to live in Gods presence; hence his prayer not to be cast away from it: knew what it was to possess Gods Holy Spirit; hence his cry not to be bereft of it: knew by experience the joy of Gods salvation hence his entreaty to have it restored to him. And doubtless this happier past colours all he has yet to say: suggests the generous care for others which flows therefrom, which would fain teach transgressors the right way, and would work for them with a hope of inducing them also to return. But now suddenly starts up a spectrethe horrible spectre of conscious blood-guiltiness. It is as though in the realm of the spirit could be seen a Blood-Avenger in hot pursuit. Snatch me away, he cries, to God himself. Nothing so vivid could have sprung to a brave mans lips as to any of the ordinary dangers of war; and of any feeling of revenge, moving to the shedding of any other mans blood, there is certainly no trace in this psalm. Hence we are psychologically compelled to endorse the avowed occasion of the psalm which stands at its head. It is not surprising that the psalmist should reveal his assurance that such a display of Divine mercy would be sure to result in a public outburst of thankfulness,an assurance well vindicated by the composition of Psalms 32, which was evidently written after this; but the wonder is, that Gods righteousness should be signalised as the Divine attribute to be celebrated. Had he here written, My tongue will ring out thy COMPASSION, we should not have been surprised; but righteousness! that is another matter, and demands thought; for the great demonstration of Divine rectitude, even when forgiving offenders, had not then been displayed (Rom. 3:25-26). Still, of course, it is right that God should exercise his right to forgive. He will not, cannot, exercise it wrongfully. It is well that we should at least see how thorough was this offenders repentance.
The opening of Davids lips is instructive; for they had doubtless been significantly closed, first in obstinacy (Psa. 32:3), and then in shame. Now that they are opened once more, it is to good purpose. The Levitical sacrifices were never intended to cover wilful and flagrant sin. David ought to have been cut off from among his people. His double crime richly deserved it. But then, who could set the law in motion against him? He could only be left in the hands of that Heavenly Lord whose vicegerent he himself was; and if He, in loving severity, had already been chastising him, as from several psalms (such as 32, 38, 39) we have seen reason to believe was the case,who are WE that we should wish to stay the hand of Divine Mercy? Admitting all this, it is fitting that we should see how little disposed the Royal Penitent was to daub with untempered mortar his own desperate case; which he would have been doing, had he piled up animal sacrifices to atone for his awful guilt. Of unspeakably more worth than they, for the purpose of restoring fellowship with God, was that offering which David had left him to render,the presentation of a broken spirit,of a broken and crushed heart. These, men might despise-excusably despise, but Davids merciful God would know how to value them, as being in fact beyond all price. It is any great wonder that, for such a truly humbled spirit, there should come a rebound? that the feet of a man thus uplifted out of the abysses of degradation and despair should already show signs of being consciously placed on a rock (40 ;2)? Hence we need not resort, with many critics, to the hypothesis of a later origin for the conclusion of this psalm. With Dr. Briggs, we prefer to regard the psalm as a consistent whole; only, unlike him, we cannot for a moment think that in the first instance this penitent suppliant was a nation: the conscience of a nation, though not to be despised, is a very conglomerate product, compared with an individual conscience with such exquisitely delicate folds in it as this which quivers and groans and is made glad in this psalm. In any case, the walls of Jerusalem were as yet unfinished, as the history plainly shows (1Ki. 3:1); and it seems like a natural outburst of patriotism that the true worth of the Temple ritual should now at length come into the view of the better self of that King David whom we otherwise know to have been so profoundly interested in the orderly ritual worship of Jehovah his God.
There are still a few words and phrases scattered throughout this precious psalm, which will repay us for a parting recognition. The reader is presumably familiar with the words transgression, iniquity, sin here used, as meaning respectively, (1) defection from God or rebellion against Him: (2) the perversion of right, depravity of conduct: (3) error, wandering from the right way, missing the mark in lifeKp. The phrases to express the removal of sin are also worthy of note: (1) blot out, twice employed (Psa. 51:1; Psa. 51:9), which regards sin as a debt recorded in Gods book which needs to be erased or cancelledwho then can cancel it but God? (2) wash, which it is remarkable properly applies to clothes, yielding the profound suggestion, that no mere skin-deep cleansing meets the sinners case; but that, as garments become ingrained with filth, so the very fibers of our minds become defiled, so that a process of much treading and rinsing is needed to detach and remove sin therefrom-again who can thus wash but God? (3) cleanse, for which we lack a literal rendering in English, seeing that the Hebrew word is an intensification of the verb to miss the mark, or lose, or sin, and we have no such word as unsin, which Edersheim suggests. (4) To render pure, physically, ceremonially, morallythe Levitical association of this and the foregoing with the removal of leprosy, being another profound suggestion, calling to mind the corroding and contaminating and generally loathsome nature of that which has to be removed. (5) But perhaps the association of hyssop with the process of unsinning, is most striking of allfar more significant than would at first sight appear. Hyssop is a well-known aromatic plant which grows on walls (1Ki. 5:13), and when bound in bunches serves as a brush or fan in sacred sprinklings (Exo. 12:22; Lev. 14:4-6; Lev. 14:49; Lev. 14:51). Its significance lies in the fact that, when employed in ceremonial sprinkling, it was always closely or remotely connected with blood-shedding; closely, when dipped in blood (Exo. 12:22) or in blood and water (Lev. 14:6-7; Lev. 14:49-52), remotely though not less really when dipped in the water of separation (Numbers 19); when thus remotely then even the more impressively, as furnishing the singular idea of sacrifice perpetuated any length of time, and individually applied to any person or thing. It is surely remarkable, that in this very psalm in which the penitent declares the inapplicability of animal sacrifices to his case, he should nevertheless employ terms so intimately bound up with the sacrificial system. This, at least, may be said: that when a Christian intelligently rejoices that his heart has been sprinkled from an evil conscience, his gladness is intensified by the realisation of an individual bringing home to him of an offering made once for all away in the past whose efficacy has not yet been lost. This survey of the sacrificial and cleansing terms employed in this psalm, especially as bringing leprosy into view, may perhaps throw a welcome sidelight on the word righteousness, which rather puzzled us when we came across it in our general survey of this psalm. Righteousness, as faithfulness to promise, we can easily understand; but had God then ever promised the forgiveness of deadly sin to David? In literal explicitnessno: by gracious construction of his plighted wordyes! In his covenant with David by the mouth of Nathan the prophet concerning Davids descendants (2 Samuel 7) Jehovah had promised never to remove his kindness from David as he had removed it from Saul. If his sons should commit iniquityalas! the father himself has done that now: Jehovah would correct them with the rod of menDavid is even yet smarting under that rod: and with the stripes, the plague-strokes, or leprosy-strokes, of the sons of common meneven these we have already seen have not been withheld from David. What a mercy! David himself has thus been brought within the very terms of the covenant formulated for his sons. And now, if God will only answer Davids outcry for mercy: that mercy will be the righteousness which fulfills the Divine word to the letter:
My tongue will ring out thy righteousness!
Righteous in smitingrighteous in sparing: a covenant-keeping God is Jehovah the Becoming One, who thus becometh the gracious interpreter of his own covenant; so as to treasure up unlooked-for grace, and, when unveiling it, shewing it to be at the same time unsullied righteousness.
One thought more. Davidas we have seenhad enjoyed the presence of the Holy Spirit, or he could not have prayed, Take it not from me. Was that Spirit, not hallowing, as well as illuminating and revealing? Can we really enter into the undercurrent of this psalm, without perceiving that a hallowing Divine Presence had lain at the roots of the writers spiritual life; without recognising that this anxious petitioner is craving, not only again to sing psalms, but also and mainly to live a pure life? By how much soever this is clear, by so much also must it be clear that the Evangelist spoke comparatively when he said (Joh. 7:39) that the Spirit could not be given until Jesus was glorified. If then the inward presence of the Holy Spirit meant so much to David, how much more, as a dynamic working out righteousness, ought it not to be to ourselves unto whom the ages have reached forth their gifts!
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
What is the one essential lesson of this psalm?
2.
Rotherham says there are no fewer than seventeen distinct petitions in this psalm. Find them and list themhow many of them express your own need?
3.
There are qualities in our Lord which give us boldness at the throne of grace. Name three mentioned in this psalm.
4.
As to the structure of this psalm: there are four petitionsa frank confession, and two discoveries, and finally three more petitions called consenting petitions, and then two imperative petitions. Please, please for your own souls development: work out this structure for yourself.
5.
In this tragic sin there is a desperate need for renewalwhat two elements of man must be re-created? How is this to be done? Please note the wonder of it all.
6.
David lost two or three wonderful possessions that he sadly missed and wanted backname at least two of them.
7.
David was blood guiltywhat does this mean?
8.
Oh, that we could believe with David that God is the one who sees and knows all we do and therefore cannot be unfair in judgmenthow shall we develop this capacity?
9.
Define: transgression; blot out; wash; cleanse.
10.
Define: pure; the use of hyssop; righteousness as used of God to David.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Blot out.The figure is most probably, as in Exo. 32:32-33, taken from the custom of erasing a written record (comp. Num. 5:23; Psa. 69:28). So LXX. and Vulg. Isaiah, however (Isa. 44:22) uses the same word in a different connection, I will blot out thy sins as a cloud. A fine thought that the error and guilt that cloud the mind and conscience can be cleared off like a mist by a breath from heaven.
Transgressions.See Psa. 32:1. The word seems to imply a wilful throwing off of authority or restraint, perhaps here the breach of the covenant-relation irrespective of any particular sin by which the breach was brought about. Whether it is an individual or the community that speaks, the prayer is that Jehovah would act according to His chesed or covenant-favour towards the suppliant, and wipe out from His records whatever has intervened between the covenant parties.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Have mercy upon me Psa 51:1-2, are a simple, earnest plea for mercy. In the greatness of David’s guilt the compassion of God afforded the only ray of hope.
According to thy lovingkindness The infinite “kindness” of God could alone supply a rule of measurement for that grace which the enormity of his offences called for. (Compare “according to the riches of his glory,” Eph 3:16.) This quality and fulness of grace are twice urged by the particle “according.”
Multitude of thy tender mercies The greatness and manifoldness of grace are still kept in view.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
An Appeal For Forgiveness And Cleansing ( Psa 51:1-2 ).
The Psalm commences with an appeal to God for forgiveness and cleansing. In these verses David throws himself on the mercy of God, in recognition that only in God’s supreme compassion is there any hope for him. He knew that he had committed the sins of adultery and murder, which in earlier times would have resulted in his execution. He knew that for these sins there was no pardon. And yet such is his intense faith that he is convinced that God will pardon him, not because he deserves it, not because of who he is, not through the cultic ritual, but because of God’s great compassion and mercy.
Psa 51:1-2
‘Show your grace towards me , O God,
According to your covenant love,
According to the abundance of your tender compassions,
Blot out my transgressions (rebellions),
Launder me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.
‘Show your grace towards me.’ Often translated as ‘have mercy on me’ the Hebrew is better translated as ‘show your grace, your unmerited love and favour, towards me’. The emphasis is not on his own need for forgiveness, but on the greatness of God’s undeserved love and favour. He knows that without that he is undone, for he is a defector. He has rebelled against God and thwarted His Law.
He is aware that nothing can excuse what he has done. No sacrifice can atone for it, no way of atonement is provided. He had sinned ‘with a high hand’. His only hope lay in what God is as the One Who is ‘a God full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy and truth, Who keeps mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin’ (Exo 34:6-7).
As one who is within the covenant he points to God’s chesed, His love revealed in the covenant, a sovereign love to those wholly undeserving. He points to the huge number of His tender compassions. And on the basis of this he calls for God to blot out every trace of his acts of rebellion, to thoroughly wash him from his depraved and filthy conduct, and to cleanse him from having turned in the wrong way and missed the mark. He is totally honest. He realises that it is his only hope. Nothing can ameliorate what he has done. He knows that there are no excuses. No sacrifice can avail. He deserves immediate execution. It is total and heartfelt repentance. He is throwing himself utterly on God’s mercy.
‘Blot out my acts of rebellion.’ He wants his record made clean, so that nothing stands against his name that can be brought against him in the future. He knows that strictly speaking adultery and murder are not forgivable sins. His only hope is for the record of them to be totally removed (compare Psa 51:9).
‘Launder me thoroughly from my depraved and filthy conduct’. This is not a reference to cultic washings. The word is never used of the washing of the person in the cult, but of the washing of the person’s clothes, and it never availed for the cleansing of sin. Such washings were regularly followed by the words ‘and shall not be clean until the evening’. The washing was preparatory, removing earthly stains from the clothes so that it was possible to wait on a pure God. But it was the time spent waiting on God that cleansed. It has more to do with Jer 2:22; Jer 4:14 where the principle of laundering is applied to the person. In Jer 2:22 it would not avail, but in Jer 4:14 it was seemingly to be effective, and was by their evil thoughts being removed from them. David is thus using a metaphor concerning his need to be laundered clean, taken from daily life and not from the cult.
‘Cleanse me from my sin.’ This verb is more closely connected with cult cleansing, especially with regard to the cleansing of leprosy, but the water there did not physically cleanse the leprosy, it was for cultic ‘cleansing’ once the leprosy was healed or seen as harmless. David, however, would know that for his sins the cult was ineffective. So here, where David was not wanting cultic cleansing (which was not possible for murder and adultery) but full, deep inner cleansing of his life, we are probably to see it as parallel in idea to the previous reference to the laundering of his life. The cult is far from his mind. He wants removal of his filthiness of heart. He has more in mind the royal bath house.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psalms 51
Introduction – In Psalms 51 David records his prayer of repentance for his sin with Bathsheba. David’s sin had already been forgiven, yet the guilt and consequences of his sin still lingered, as it often does under the new covenant. In his prayer David asks the Lord not to take the Holy Spirit from him. Under the Old Covenant the Holy Spirit came and departed upon prophets, kings and priests as they ministered for the Lord. Under the New Covenant the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in believes forever and does not depart. David’s prayer is a prophetic cry for the full redemption of his soul, which will not take place until the full work of Calvary is accomplished and Jesus comes to received His Church. Despite this sin the New Testament tells us that David was a man after God’s heart (Act 13:22).
Act 13:22, “And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.”
Psa 51:1 (To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.) Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Psa 51:4 Psa 51:4
Rom 3:4, “God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.”
Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Psa 51:5
Lev 15:18, “The woman also with whom man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even.”
Rom 3:23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”
Psa 51:6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Psa 51:7 Psa 51:7
Exo 12:22, “And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop , and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.”
Lev 14:4-7, “Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water: As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop , and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water: And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.”
Lev 14:49-52, “And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop : And he shall kill the one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water: And he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times: And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet:”
Num 19:6, “And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.”
Heb 9:19-22, “For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop , and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.”
In nature, it grows on walls:
1Ki 4:33, “And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall : he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.”
The Jews sprinkled with hyssop and then washed themselves (Num 19:1-10). So,
Heb 10:22, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”
Psa 51:8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
Psa 51:8
Psa 51:11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Psa 51:11
1Sa 14:37, “And Saul asked counsel of God, Shall I go down after the Philistines? wilt thou deliver them into the hand of Israel? But he answered him not that day.”
Psa 51:11 “and take not thy holy spirit from me” Comments – David knew that the Holy Spirit had been taken and removed from Saul:
1Sa 16:14, “But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.”
1Sa 18:12, “And Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with him, and was departed from Saul.”
1Sa 28:15-16, “And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy?”
Psa 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Psa 51:12
Psa 51:12 “and uphold me with thy free spirit” Word Study on “uphold” Strong says the Hebrew word “uphold” ( ) (H5564) means, “to prop, to lean on or take hold of.”
Word Study on “free” Gesenius says the Hebrew word “free” ( ) (H5082) means, “nobility, a noble and happy condition.” Strong says this word is the feminine of the Hebrew ( ) (H5081), which Gesenius says means, “voluntary, willing, spontaneous, ready, generous noble.”
RSV, NASB a willing spirit
NLT – willing to obey you
Comments – God gives his Spirit freely.
Psa 51:12 Comments – In Psa 51:11 David asks for the present of the Lord, and the Holy Spirit. He then asks in Psa 51:12 for the joy of his salvation. There is joy and the Holy Spirit in God’s presence (Psa 16:11). The joy of the Lord is our strength (Neh 8:10)
Psa 16:11, “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy ; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
Neh 8:10, “Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength .”
Psa 51:13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
Psa 51:14 Psa 51:14
Psa 51:15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
Psa 51:15
Psa 51:16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
Psa 51:16
1Sa 15:22, “And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”
Scripture References – Note a similar verse:
Heb 10:8, “Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;”
Psa 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Psa 51:17
Psa 34:18, “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”
Jas 4:8, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.”
Psa 51:18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
Psa 51:18
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
David’s Penitential Prayer.
David’s Plea for Mercy
v. 1. Have mercy upon me, O God, v. 2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, v. 3. For I acknowledge my transgressions, v. 4. Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight, v. 5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me; v. 6. Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts, v. 7. Purge me with hyssop, v. 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness, v. 9. Hide Thy face from my sins,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
THIS is the first of a series of fifteen psalms assigned by their titles to David, and mostly attached to special circumstances in his life, which are said to have furnished the occasions for their composition. The school of writers which brushes aside the “titles” as unauthorized and unhistorical, and so regards itself as wholly free to assign to any psalm any date and any author that it prefers, places this among post-Captivity compositions, especially on account of Psa 51:18, Psa 51:19 (so Professor Cheyne, Dr. Robertson Smith, the Four Friends, and others). Those, on the contrary, who consider the “titles” to be entitled to regard and respect, even if not absolutely authoritative, find either nothing in the psalm unsuitable to David’s time, or else nothing but what may well have been a subsequent addition for liturgical purposes. This is the view taken by many with respect to the last two verses. Others, however, note that the walls of Jerusalem were not built, but only in the course of being built, in David’s time, and regard the whole psalm as eminently suited to the period whereto the title ascribes it (so Hengstenberg, Canon Cook, Dr. Kay, Professor Alexander, and others).
The psalm consists of an opening strophe, extending to four verses, which is an earnest prayer for mercy and forgiveness (Psa 51:1-4); a second strophe, of eight verses, which is an entreaty for restoration and renewal (Psa 51:5-12); a third strophe, of five verses, setting forth the return which the psalmist will make, if he is forgiven and restored (Psa 51:13-17); and a conclusion, in two verses, praying for God’s blessing on the people, and promising an ample return on their part (Psa 51:18, Psa 51:19).
Psa 51:1
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness. It is observable that the whole psalm is addressed to God (Elohim), and not to Jehovah (the “Lord” in Psa 51:15 is Adonai), as though the psalmist felt himself unworthy to utter the covenant-name, and simply prostrated himself as a guilty man before his offended Maker. It is not correet to say that “loving-kindness implies a covenant” (Cheyne), since God is “good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works” (Psa 145:9). According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. David’s first prayer is for pity; his second, to have his offences “blotted out,” or “wiped out”entirely removed from God’s book (comp. Exo 32:32; Isa 43:25; Isa 44:22). He says “my transgressions,” in the plural, because “his great sin did not stand aloneadultery was followed by treachery and murder” (Canon Cook).
Psa 51:2
Wash me throughly from mine iniquity. Wash me, as a fuller washes a fouled garment (, LXX; not ), not as a man washes his skin. And cleanse me from my sin. “Transgressions,” “iniquity,” “sin,” cover every form of moral evil, and, united together, imply the deepest guilt (comp. Psa 51:3, Psa 51:5, Psa 51:9, Psa 51:14).
Psa 51:3
For I acknowledge my transgressions (comp. Psa 32:5, “I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin”). The first step in repentance is contrition; the second, confession; the third, amendment of life. And my sin is ever before me. I bear it in mind; I do not hide it from myself. I keep it continually before my mental vision. This, too, is characteristic of true penitence. Mock penitents confess their sins, and straightway forget them. Real genuine ones find it impossible to forget.
Psa 51:4
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned. Though no sins could be more directly against man than adultery and murder, yet David feels that that aspect of them shrinks away into insignificance, and is as if it were not, when they are viewed in their true and real character, as offences against the majesty of God. Every sin is mainly against God; and the better sort of men always feel this. “How can I do this great wickedness,” says Joseph, when tempted by Potiphar’s wife, “and sin against God?” And so David to Nathan, when he was first rebuked by him, “I have sinned against the Lord“ (2Sa 12:13). And done this evil in thy sight; that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Clear in the eyes of the world, that is; free from all charge of harshness or injustice, when thou judgest me, and condemnest me for my sins, as thou must do.
Psa 51:5-12
The prayer now makes a stride in advance. It has been hitherto for the first step in justificationthe wiping out of past transgressions. It is now for restoration, for a renewal of spiritual life, for a return to God’s favour, and to the spiritual joy involved in it. First, however, an additional confession is made (Psa 51:5, Psa 51:6). Not only have I committed acts of sin (Psa 51:1-4), but sin is thoroughly ingrained into my nature. I was conceived in it; I was brought forth in it; only the strongest remedies can cleanse me from it (Psa 51:7). But cleansing alone is not enough. I need renewal (Psa 51:10); I need thy Holy Spirit (Psa 51:11); I crave, above all, the sense of a restoration to thy favoura return to the old feelings of “joy and gladness” (Psa 51:8), even “the joy of thy salvation” (Psa 51:12).
Psa 51:5
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; rather, in iniquity was I brought forth. And in sin did my mother conceive me. It is doubtless true, as Professor Cheyne says, that “the Old Testament contains no theory of the origin of sin”no formulated doctrine on the subject. But the fact of congenital depravity is stated, not only here, but also in Job 14:4; Psa 58:3; it is also implied in Isa 43:27 and Hos 6:7.
Psa 51:6
Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts (comp. Job 38:36). God requires not merely such purity as might be attained by the use of legal and ritual methods; but true inward purity of thought and heart, which is a very different matter. And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom; rather, do thou make me. An optative, according to Professor Cheyne. The meaning is, “As nothing will content thee but this perfect, inward purity, do thou give me into my heart its fundamental principle-wisdom, or the fear of God.”
Psa 51:7
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. “Hyssop” alone could by the Levitical Law cleanse from contact with a corpse (Num 19:18) or from the defilement of leprosy (Le Psa 14:4). David recognizes that his impurity is of the extremest kind, and needs the remedy which has the greatest purifying power. Legally, this was the hyssop, with its “blood of sprinkling” (Le Psa 14:6, Psa 14:7); spiritually, it was the blood of Christ, which was thus symbolized. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Again the word is used which corresponds to the Greek . “Wash me as garments are washed by the fuller” (see the comment on Psa 51:2).
Psa 51:8
Make me to hear joy and gladness (comp. below, Psa 51:12). On forgiveness follows naturally the sense of it, and this sense is in itself a deep satisfaction. But the psalmist seems to ask for something more. He wants not mere negative peace and rest, but the active thrilling joy which those experience who feel themselves restored to God’s favour, and bask in the light of his countenance. That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. That every ache and pain may cease, and be replaced by gladness and rejoicing.
Psa 51:9
Hide thy face from my sins. Turn thyself away from themdo not so much as see them. The apostle speaks of times of ignorance, which God “winked at” (Act 17:30). And blot out all mine iniquities (comp. Psa 51:1).
Psa 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God; i.e. do more than purify medo more than cleanse me (Psa 51:7); by an act of creative power () make in me a new clean heart. Compare the Christian doctrine of the “new birth” and “new life.” And renew a right spirit within me. “Heart” and “spirit” are used interchangeably for the inward essence of man; but, as Professor Cheyne observes, “Heart emphasizes the individual side of a man’s life; spirit, its Divine, or at least preternatural side.” David, in asking both for a new heart and a new spirit, requests the renovation of his entire mental and moral nature, which he recognizes as corrupt and depraved.
Psa 51:11
Cast me not away from thy presence. To he “cast away from God’s presence” is to be altogether cast out of his covenant, made an alien from him, deprived of his favour and the light of his countenance (see Gen 4:14; 2Ki 13:23). The psalmist deprecates so terrible a punishment, although he feels that he has deserved it. And take not thy Holy Spirit from me. God’s Holy Spirit had been poured upon David when he was first anointed by Samuel to the kingly office (1Sa 16:13). His great sins had undoubtedly “grieved” and vexed the Spirit; and, had they been continued or not repented of, would have caused him to withdraw himself; but they had not “wholly quenched the Spirit” (1Th 5:19). David was therefore able to pray, as he does, that the Holy Spirit of God might still be vouchsafed to him, and not be “taken away,” as from one wholly unworthy.
Psa 51:12
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Give me back that “joy” which was mine when I was conscious of thy favour, and felt that thou wert my Strength and my Salvation (Psa 18:1; Psa 62:2, etc.). And uphold me with thy free spirit. There is no “thy” in the original; and it is his own spirit, not God’s Spirit, of which the psalmist here speaks. “Uphold me,” he says, “preserve me from falling, by giving me a ‘free,’ or ‘generous,’ or ‘noble’ spiritthe opposite of that ‘spirit of bondage’ which the apostle says that Christians do not receive” (Rom 8:15).
Psa 51:13-17
The psalmist now turns from prayer to promise. If God will grant his petitions, restore him to favour, and renew his spiritual life, then he will make such return as is possible to him. First, he will teach transgressors God’s ways (Psa 51:13). Next, he will extol his righteousness, and show forth his praise(Psa 51:14, Psa 51:15). Finally, he will offer him, not bloody sacrifice, but the sacrifice in which he delights”the sacrifice of a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart” (Psa 51:16, Psa 51:17). Such sacrifice, he is sure, God will not despise.
Psa 51:13
Then will I teach transgressors thy ways. The truly grateful heart cannot be satisfied without making some return to God for his goodness. The most satisfactory return is by deeds, not words. David’s determination is to do his best to promote the glory of God by bringing others to salvation, turning them from their own evil ways to the “ways” that God would have them walk in. And sinners shall be converted unto thee. The result, he hopes, will be the conversion to God of many “sinners” (comp. Psa 32:8).
Psa 51:14
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God. In David’s mouth this prayer is readily intelligible. In that of Babylonian exiles, the victims of oppression and wrong, it would be most extraordinary. Thou God of my salvation (comp. Psa 18:46; Psa 25:5; Psa 27:9 : Psa 88:1, etc.). And my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. In further acknowledgment of God’s goodness, and as, in some sort, a return for it, David will employ himself in singing the praises of God (see his many psalms of praise) and will especially exalt God’s righteousness. “Jehovah,” as Professor Cheyne observes, “is equally righteous when he sends and when he removes chastisements.”
Psa 51:15
O Lord (not Jehovah, but Adonai), open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. A sense of his guilt has long kept the psalmist’s lips closed. Let his sins be forgiven, and his conscience relieved, then praise and thanksgiving will flow from his mouth freely and copiously.
Psa 51:16
For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it. If there had been any sacrifices which God desired or required for such offences as adultery and murder, David would have willingly offered them. But there were none. As Hammond observes, “The Mosaical Law allows no reconciliation, no sacrifice, for such sins.” Thou delightest not in burnt offering. In the mere act of sacrificethe untimely slaying of his own creaturesGod could at no time have had any pleasure. His satisfaction could only arise from the spirit in which sacrifices were offeredthe gratitude, devotion, self-renunciation, obedience, of those who approached him with them (comp. Psa 40:6; Psa 50:8-13; Isa 1:11-17, etc.).
Psa 51:17
The sacrifices of God; i.e. the sacrifices which God really values and desires. Are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. “The contrite heart,” says Hengstenberg, “denotes deep but soft and mild distress.” It sets up no wild shriekings, no howls, like those of Oriental fanatics. But it nourishes a sorrow that is deep and persistent. The joy on account of forgiveness and restoration to favour does not exclude continued pain on account of past sin.
Psa 51:18, Psa 51:19
That this is an addition made to the original psalm, during the time of the Babylonian exile, or later, for liturgical purposes, has been maintained by a large number of the commentators who ascribe the rest of the psalm to David. The chief ground for the supposition is the prayer in Psa 51:18, “Build thou the walls of Jerusalem,” which has been supposed to imply that the walls were in ruins, whereas under David they should have been, it is thought, in good condition. But it has been pointed out, very justly, that the fortifications of Jerusalem were not complete in David’s time, and that both he and Solomon added considerably to them (2Sa 5:9; 1Ki 3:1; 1Ki 9:15, 1Ki 9:19). David may well have thought that, as a punishment for his sin, God might interfere with the work which he was doing for the benefit of his people, and hence have felt it needful to pray, “Do good unto Zion: build thou the wails of Jerusalem.”
Psa 51:18
Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion. It is characteristic of David to pass from prayer for himself to prayer for the people committed to him, and especially to do so at or near the end of a psalm (see Psa 5:11, Psa 5:12; Psa 25:22; Psa 28:9; Psa 40:16). And he closely connectsnay, identifiesthe people with their capital city (see Psa 46:4; Psa 48:11; Psa 69:35, etc.). Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Josephus says that David encompassed the whole city of Jerusalem with walls (‘Ant. Jud.,’ 7.3, 2); and we are told, in the Second Book of Samuel, that he “built round about from Mille and inward.” It has been argued that his walls were just approaching their completion at the time of his great sin.
Psa 51:19
Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness. “Then”when the walls are completedthou shalt receive the public sacrifices which will naturally be offered on the accomplishment of such a work (Neh 12:43). And these sacrifices, offered willingly by grateful hearts, will be pleasing and acceptable unto thee. With burnt offering, and whole burnt offering. Only the head, the fat, and certain portions of the interior were ordinarily burnt when a victim was offered (Le 1:8, 12; Psa 3:3, Psa 3:4, etc.); but sometimes, when the offerer’s heart was full, and he desired to indicate its complete and undivided surrender to God, the entire victim was consumed (see Hengstenberg, ad loc.). Then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar. Bullocks, or oxen, were offered on all great occasions (see 2Sa 24:22-25; 1Ki 8:63; 1Ch 29:21; 2Ch 7:5; 2Ch 29:32, 2Ch 29:33; 2Ch 35:7, 2Ch 35:9; Ezr 6:17, etc.).
HOMILETICS
Psa 51:1
The penitent’s plea for pardon.
“Have mercy,” etc. This psalm is like a page of autobiography written in the author’s life-blood. It is, indeed, the utterance of what Psa 51:17 describes, “a broken and a contrite heart.” Nowhere in the Old Testament Scriptures do we find so profound depth and tenderness of penitence, joined with such childlike faith in God’s pardoning mercy. If the dark record of David’s crime had been silently omitted, we should have been utterly at a loss to understand this psalm. Who could have thought that from the same harp which uttered the sweet strain of Psa 23:1-6, could proceed so deep a wail of grief and self-abasement? Yet it is just because David’s joy in God and love to God were so real that his repentance was so bitter. No hypocrite could have penned this psalm. Any one who calls David a hypocrite shows dense ignorance of human nature.
I. THE PENITENT‘S PLEA FOR PARDON. “According to thy loving-kindness [or, ‘mercy’]; according to the multitude of thy tender mercies [or, ‘compassions’.].” He has nothing to plead in defence or palliation. God’s mercy and pity are his sole hope. What warrant has he to expect them? Answer: God’s covenant with Israel. Such sins as David’s (murder and adultery) could not be purged by sacrifice (see Heb 10:28). And while under the condemnation of such guilt, it would have been vain presumption to offer peace offerings. Verse 16 may include both. But the whole law of sacrifice revealed God’s delight in mercy, while it foreshadowed the true atonement. The gospel puts this plea in our mouth in a new form. It supplies an incomparably more glorious warrant and encouragement than the Old Testament believer possessedthe atonement which God himself has provided (2Co 5:21; Eph 1:7; Rom 5:8).
II. THE UNLIMITED EFFICACY OF THIS PLEA. It is difficult to imagine sins more heinous than those of which David had been guilty. Their guilt was enormously aggravated by the fact that he was the divinely chosen king of the chosen people, an inspired prophet, and the object of signal and unrivalled blessings from God. Perhaps we have sometimes wished this dark page of Scripture had remained unwritten. But there it stands, to teach us that no sinner need despair of God’s mercy. The door at which David entered is wide enough for every true penitent. So St. Paul points to his own case as an encouragement to all (1Ti 1:15, 1Ti 1:16).
III. THE EXCLUSIVE ADEQUACY OF THIS PLEA. It admits no addition, no partnership, no substitute. It is this or none (Rom 3:23-26). By one sin, St. James teaches us, God’s Law is as completely broken as by many (Jas 2:10). Therefore only the blood which cleanses from all sin (1Jn 1:7) can cleanse from any (Tit 3:4-7). In the heavenly world there will be immense differences in glory and happiness, according to attainment and service. But in this respectthe ground of pardon and salvationall stand on one level; all join in one song (Rev 1:5, Rev 1:6; Rev 5:9).
The folly and guilt of impenitence appear most of all in thisthat it is a despising of God’s mercy and compassion (Rom 2:4).
Psa 51:10
Prayer for a pure heart.
“Create in me,” etc. Human life belongs to two different worlds, distinct, yet inseparably interwoventhe world of outward nature, and the world of inward experience. Since this psalm was written, amazing changes have passed on outward nature in relation to man’s life; but the world of inward experience is substantially unchanged. Even within half a century or less, human labour, discovery, and invention have so modified our relations to the globe we inhabit, and to the forces of nature, that we sometimes say we live in a different world. But the great inner world of joy and sorrow, love and hate, faith and unbelief, nobleness and baseness, holiness and sin, is the same in England to-day as in Judaea three thousand years ago. It has not ceased to be true that “As in water,” etc. (Pro 27:19). There is still the same room and need for the prayer of the text. It is still true that it is a prayer which only the Spirit of God could inspire, can fulfil, or can interpret.
I. A PRAYER WHICH ONLY THE HOLY SPIRIT. COULD INSPIRE. How else can it be rationally accounted for? A prayer to God as Creator, for spiritual purity and rectitude: “a clean heart and a right spirit.” Whence came these ideas? Still more, whence came these desires? It is easy to answerThey were suggested by the purifications ordained by the Law of Moses; sprinkling with blood, with the water of purification in which the ashes of the heifer had been steeped, and “divers washings.” But even supposing these rites could have originated the notion of inward purity and spiritual holiness, how could they create any corresponding desire? But, in fact, these spiritual ideas were the very meaning of those rites, for the sake of which they were ordained (see e.g. Exo 19:5, Exo 19:10, Exo 19:11). It has been asserted by scholars, who ought to know better, that the original notion of sin, in the Old Testament Scriptures and among the ancient Hebrews, was merely ceremonial. The doctrine of the inward, spiritual nature of sin, and need of inward purification, was gradually developed, it is said, by the prophets. No assertion can be more baseless. Of all the words (not fewer than ten) used in the sacred tongue to express sin, not one originally refers to outward defilements; all are moral. The three principal occur in verses 1, 2 (comp. Psa 32:1, Psa 32:2; Exo 34:7).
(1) “Transgression,” equivalent to “rebellion,” viz. against God (cf. 2Ki 8:20 for Hebrew word).
(2) “Iniquity,” equivalent to “perverseness”crooked and unjust thought or action.
(3) “Sin,” equivalent to “error”missing the mark. These are moral, not ceremonial ideas. The notion of pollution or defilement by crime was familiar among ancient heathen nations. But it was external, to be removed by outward ceremonies (see the story in Herodotus, 1:35-44). David felt that his heart, his spirit, his inmost self, needed cleansing and renewal, which God alone could impart.
II. A PRAYER WHICH ONLY THE HOLY SPIRIT CAN FULFIL. David begins (verses 1-9) by asking for Divine mercy; here he invokes Divine power. He uses the strongest term possible, “create.” The same life-breathing Spirit who brooded over the dark waters at the first creation (Gen 1:2) must descend on man’s dark, sinful heart, and breathe life into it (2Co 4:6; Eph 2:1, Eph 2:5, Eph 2:10). Our Saviour expresses the same great spiritual change as a new birth (Joh 3:3, Joh 3:5-8). Thus the Old Testament here anticipates the deepest teaching of the New. But there is another side, equally recognized in Scripture (Eze 18:31; Isa 1:16). As strongly in the New Testament (Jas 4:4, Jas 4:8; 1Jn 3:3). God does not deal with men as machines or statues. God speaks to men, beseeches, warns, invites. Our Saviour did so, even to the very persons he described as closing their eyes, etc. (Mat 13:15). It is by the reception of Divine truth that the heart is purified, spiritual life conveyed (1Pe 1:22; Jas 1:18; Joh 6:63). This cannot take place passively and unconsciously. Still, when all is said, life can come only from God (Psa 36:9; Eze 11:19). David’s prayer goes to the central depth, the innermost need of our nature. Our reason is incompetent to reconcile these opposite views (Divine grace and human will); but St. Paul shows their practical harmony (Php 2:12, Php 2:13).
III. A PRAYER WHICH ONLY THE HOLY SPIRIT CAN INTERPRET, AND TEACH US TO MAKE OUR OWN. Inspiration is as needful to readers as to writers of the Scriptures; not the same, but as real. The inspiration of the writer of this psalm we do not need. Here is the psalm, perfect, unrivalled, unexhausted. But before David wrote it he prayed it and felt it. We need that inspiration which taught him to pour out this prayer into God’s ear (Rom 8:26). “A clean heart.” In the earlier part of the psalm, washing and cleansing are the images of forgiveness (so Isa 1:8; 1Jn 1:7). But here, of renewal, spiritual purity (2Co 7:1). As the former prayer expresses sense of guilt, and desire for God’s favour; so this sense of the foul impurity and hate. fulness of sin, and desire for God’s likeness. See what follows.
REMARKS.
1. The utterance of this prayer with no sense of sin, no longing for holiness, would be mockery. If you feel you cannot honestly utter it, what you have to do is to ask that God’s Holy Spirit will teach and enable you (Joh 16:8, Joh 16:9).
2. If this is truly your prayer, the Holy Spirit must have taught you. And the prayers he teaches carry the earnest of their fulfilment.
Psa 51:12
The joy of God’s salvation.
“Restore,” etc. Two opposite kinds of experience are wonderfully blended in this psalmthe experience of a conscience-stricken transgressor, and the experience of a believer rejoicing in Divine mercy. Nothing can be more mournful than David’s profound self-abasement and piercing cry for pardon. Nothing can be more calm, hopeful, restful, than his trust in God’s forgiving and restoring grace. He is like one emerging from a gloomy cavern, where no ray of light shone, who does not yet stand in the sunlight, but sees it shining at the cave’s mouth, and knows that a few more steps will bring him into full sunshine. The secret of this blending of opposite experiences is that David is looking so earnestly away from himself to God. In regard to his crimes, he looks not at the wrong done to fellow-mortals, but at his sin against God (Psa 51:4). And in regard to salvation, he does not measure his expectation by anything he can offer to Godrepentance or amendment or atonementbut by the infinite fulness of God’s love and grace. Therefore he is able to ask, not merely for pardon, to have his forfeited life and crown spared, but for full restoration to the happy consciousness of God’s favour. The prayer of this verse is
I. A YEARNING AFTER LOST JOY. It breathes a desolate sense of loss. Consider who utters it. This is not the sentimental moan of a recluse, morbidly poring over his inward experience. Not the visionary craving of a heart ignorant of life and of the world. Not the reactionary disgust of a worn-out worldling. If any man ever knew the world and enjoyed it, David did. The experience of even his wise son Solomon was limited compared with his. Endowed with personal grace and beauty which won love at first sight; a man of genius, skilful in poetry and music; a hero in war, who had fought his way from the sheepfold to the throne;he was in the heyday of prosperity and power. His armies and generals won victories for him, while he enjoyed the luxury of his palace. His servants devotedly obeyed, even when he required them to commit crimes. He had obtained the wife on whom his heart was passionately set. A son had been born to them. It might seem as though God had overlooked his sins, and was shedding on him the peaceful light of Divine favour. True, his sinsnay, crimeshad” made the enemies of the Lord blaspheme;” but their counter-censures did not reach the royal ears. When the Prophet Nathan stood before him, and told his touching parable, David had no suspicion that it was aimed at himself (2Sa 12:5). What lacked he, in the midst of his prosperity? Two thingsone of which the ungodly reckon a trifle, and the other the worldly regard as illusionpeace of conscience, and the sense of Divine favour, what in happier days he called “the light of God’s countenance.” When Nathan’s rebuke, like lightning from a clear sky, smote him, “Thou art the man!” it was as though the whole fabric of his earthly bliss melted like a dream, leaving him alone with these twoconscious guilt and Divine displeasure. Preachers are often reproached with denouncing a world they do not know; decrying pleasures and wealth they would only be too glad to share. At all events, you cannot say this of David. The tide of worldly joy is at full with him, yet he is broken-hearted. He has lost what the world could not give, and all the world cannot make up for. “Restore,” he cries, “the joy of thy salvation!”
II. AN UTTERANCE OF STRONG FAITH IN GOD. That it was possible for a godly man, a man whom the Holy Spirit inspired to compose psalms which are among the most sacred treasures of the Church, to fall as David fell, is a tremendous warning that neither grace nor gifts are any security to one who neglects to watch and pray. Nevertheless, it is impossible that an ungodly man could have written this psalm. Even a new convert, pierced with the pangs of a first repentance, could not have written it. David’s self-abasement is measured by the height from which he has fallen. A penitent with no previous experience of communion with God would have thought more of his crimes against men, less of his sin against God. In David’s view, the former seems swallowed up in the latter (Psa 51:4). Here is not mere feeling, but faith, as enlightened as rumple, equally convinced of God’s willingness to forgive, and of his power to restore. David asks for both, expects both. Nowhere can you find more clearly discriminated, more inseparably united, these two great gifts of God which together make up salvationforgiveness and renewal; righteousness and holiness; deliverance from the guilt of sin; and cleansing from its defilements (Psa 51:1, Psa 51:2, Psa 51:9, Psa 51:10). See the contrast between remorse and repentance; the first akin to pride and despair; the second to humility and hope. See, too, the close union of humility and faith. As a grain of sand in the eye blots the sunlight, so a grain of self-righteousness would have marred David’s trust. The key-note of the psalm is the opening plea, “According to thy loving-kindness.”
III. THE VOICE OF GOD‘S OWN SPIRIT. The cry, “Take not,” etc. (Psa 51:11), could not come from a heart destitute of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God speaks here through the whole man; his deepest experience is made transparent. Prophets were sometimes inspired to deliver messages they did not understand. Not so here. The Holy Spirit has dipped his pen in the heart, and written with life-blood. This is what makes this psalm so precious. A candid, thoughtful sceptic would do well to study this psalm carefully, deeply; not its mere language, but its spirit. Can it be explained on mere natural principles, apart from Divine inspiration of some kind? Have we here a simply human or a supernatural experience? Nothing like it is to be found in classic literature; nothing in the sacred books of the East. A soul face to face with God, broken-hearted because of sin, not chiefly as crime or as defilement (though both are profoundly felt), but supremely as sin against the righteous and holy God; yet taking refuge in God, with confident hope of pardon, spiritual renewal, and joy in God’s favourthis experience is distinctly superhuman, supernatural. Therefore is it full of encouragement. If it were David’s alone, this would be no ground to think it may be ours. But the same Spirit who taught him thus to feel, thus to believe, thus to pray, is promised “to them that ask.”
Psa 51:17
The sacrifices of God, etc.
We may call this psalm “the penitents prayer-book.’ The spectacle of a good man falling into open sin is a sight to make angels weep, especially a man so distinguished as David falling into sins so gross and flagrant. We are ready to ask why a veil of silence was not allowed to hide this shameful example. This psalm supplies a twofold answer: the record of David’s profound humiliation and bitter repentance is a warning to those who “think they stand;” his humble but assured faith in God’s pardoning mercy is an encouragement to those who know they have fallen. We could none of us afford to lose this page out of the Bible. No part of Old Testament Scripture enters more deeply into the spiritual life. These words set before us
I. WHAT THE SINNER CANNOT OFFER TO GOD. He can make no atonement for his sin, fulfil no duty that can be accepted as a counterpoise to his transgression. He has no hope but in the simple undeserved mercy of God (Psa 51:16). The word here for “sacrifice” is general, including sin offerings, Passover lambs, thank offeringsany sacrifice in which the victim was slain (so 1Sa 3:14; Exo 12:27; this is overlooked by some good writers). The sin offerings appointed by the Law provided for sins of ignorance, infirmity, and error, not for wilful transgressions of known law (” with a high hand”) (Le Psa 4:2; Num 15:27, Num 15:30). They were not designed to interfere with the course of civil justice; otherwise religion and law would have been in open conflict (Heb 10:28). Therefore crimes like David’sadultery and murder, for either of which the Law sentenced him to deathcould not be purged by sacrifice. He deserved to die, and he knew it. He casts himself on the sovereign mercy of God: “Deliver me from bloodguiltlness!” (Psa 51:14).
II. WHAT THE SINNER CAN OFFER TO GOD, AND GOD WILL ACCEPT. “A broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart” Why is this called a “sacrifice”a consecrated gift to God?
1. Because we glorify God by frank, full acknowledgment that his Law is holy, his authority supreme, and that he may justly condemn and punish (see Psa 51:4). David had deeply sinned against men; but he seems to lose sight of this in the awful overwhelming view of his guilt against God (cf. Jos 7:19).
2. Because this “broken and contrite heart” implies the full giving up of ourselves to God, not only that he may forgive our sin, set us free from the burden of guilt, but that he may “renew a right spirit within” us (Psa 51:9-12), that he may make us wholly his own (cf. Rom 12:1). Note that this word “sacrifice” does not of itself mean atonement. That meaning was given to sacrifice by express Divine teaching (Le Psa 17:11).
III. THE DEEPEST PENITENCEthe truest sense of guilt and shame and grief for sinIS CONSISTENT WITH BOUNDLESS FAITH IN GOD‘S FORGIVING MERCY. If ever there was the utterance of a broken, contrite heart, it is this psalm. No hypocrite, no ungodly man, could possibly have written it. No, nor yet a sincere godly penitent, without a mighty inspiration of God’s Spirit. And the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, breathes into the broken heart the healing balm of hope, trust, joy, and thankfulness. David, who dares not offer a sacrifice until he knows that he is forgiven, looks forward to the time when he shall offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, peace offerings, and whole burnt offerings; when God will bless him in his work of building the holy city, and will himself bless and guard Jerusalem (Psa 51:18, Psa 51:19), without which verses the psalm would be maimed and incomplete.
IV. THE WARRANT OF THIS ASSURED FAITH is found, not in the sinner’s repentance, hut in God’s mercy and promise (Psa 51:1). Nathan had been commissioned to assure David of pardon as well as to charge him with his sin (2Sa 12:13). If David had asked how it could be right and just for God thus to pardon crimes which, as king, David himself would have been bound to punish in another man, we know not what answer he could have found, except to say, “God is Sovereign!” The gospel alone reveals how God is “just, and the Justifier of him who believeth in Jesus” (Rom 3:23-26). It was a wonderful new doctrine which the apostles proclaimed, that sins for which the Law of Moses provided no sin offerings are atoned for by him (Act 13:38, Act 13:39). “All sin” (1Jn 1:7). God has himself provided the Sacrifice which all the sacrifices of the Law faintly foreshadowed (Joh 1:29). Therefore the sacrifice of one contrite heart and of one joyful tongue, blemished, blind, lame, though it too often is, is acceptable to God, because our High Priest ever lives to intercede.
Psa 51:18
Relations of ruler and people.
“Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion,” etc. This psalm would be very defective if it ended without such a prayer as this. For David the penitent transgressor, David the inspired psalmist, was also David the anointed of God, king of his people Israel. Modern criticism, eager to use its sharp shears, would cut away these two verses as added by a later hand. But modern criticism, keen and accomplished as it is, is sorely lacking in sympathy and imagination. As matter of history, David’s work of “building the walls of Jerusalem” was left incomplete, and finished by Solomon (2Sa 5:9; 1Ki 9:15; 1Ki 11:27). But he knew and felt that the true wall of Zion was God’s protection (Psa 125:2). And as his people Israel had shared the shame, though not the guilt, of his crimes, he trusted they would share the blessing of God’s pardoning mercy and restoring grace. We are reminded
I. NATIONS SUFFER THROUGH THEIR RULERS‘ SINS. What is guilt in the ruler is calamity for the people. This is not arbitrary or unjust. It is hut a case of the great law of solidarity pervading human life (Rom 14:7). So with the parent and the family, teacher and scholars, head of a business and all in his employ. Power and privilege mean tremendous responsibility. No men have such heavy burdens as rulers, and few get less sympathy.
II. NATIONAL SAFETY LIES IN GOD‘S PROTECTION. Scarcely even the history of Israel illustrates this more wonderfully than the history of our own nation.
III. PRAYER FOR OUR COUNTRY IS A WEIGHTY DUTY, A HIGH PRIVILEGE, AND CLAIMS A CONSTANT PLACE IN OUR PUBLIC, FAMILY, PRIVATE DEVOTIONS. (Psa 122:6.) Yet a venerable Jewish tradition. It belongs to the time when the temple at Jerusalem had not even been thought of. The tabernacle was at Nob, not far from the Mount of Olives. It is possible to maintain Christian life in secrecy and solitude. But that is not what the New Testament describes as history, and reveals as Christ’s will. It is neither natural nor safe. Mushrooms may grow in cellars; not fruit trees. The embodiment of spiritual life in fellowship is one of the most remarkable presentments of the New Testament records. Wherever the gospel took root, the fence of Church fellowship was built round it, not by man’s wisdom, but by him who said, “I will build my Church.”
IV. THEREFORE THE ROOT OF CHRISTIAN LIFE, THE SECRET OF ITS FULNESS, BEAUTY, FRUIT–BEARING, IS PERSONAL FAITH. “I will trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.” The olive did not grow because it was planted in the house of the Lord, but because God put the hidden life into the seed. Church forms are but a delusion and a danger, if trusted in, to those who are strangers to the hidden life (Gal 2:20).
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH
Psa 51:1-19
This might be called
The minister’s psalm.
We may imagine the servant of the Lord engaged in devout meditation. He looks before and after. He communes with himself as to his life and work. The deepest thoughts of his heart are revealed.
I. EVER–GROWING SENSE OF THE EVIL OF SIN. Sin is thought of in the abstract, and its badness is seen. It is looked at in the world, in society, in the Church, and more and more its evils are discerned. But worst of all, it is felt to belong to one’s self “My sin.”
II. DEEPER SYMPATHY WITH ALL TRUE SEEKERS AFTER TRUTH AND HOLINESS. The task is noble, but difficult. Only these who have tried know how difficult. There are not only obstacles without, but there is the fearful obstacle within of a sinful heart.
III. TRUER REALIZATION OF THE GREATNESS OF THE WORK OF RESTORATION. Experience is the best teacher. It is better to judge from fact than from theory. Such as have themselves been “restored” are the fittest to speak of restoration. They know that the work is possible, though hard, for they themselves have experienced it. Like John Newton, the minister may take heart in time of despondency: “God has converted me, therefore I can never doubt of his power to convert the greatest sinner.” This was Paul’s argument (1Ti 1:15, 1Ti 1:16).
IV. THE NECESSITY OF NEW AND THOROUGH CONSECRATION. Looking to the past, there is much to humble us. Looking to God, there is everything to encourage us. We need to give ourselves anew to Christ. Opportunities are precious. To save ourselves from “bloodguiltiness,” we must pray more and watch more. The nearer we live to God, the more interested we shall be in God’s work.
V. INCREASED DELIGHT IN CARRYING THE MESSAGE OF PEACE TO SINNERS. What we prize ourselves we commend to others. The peace we enjoy we would have others enjoy also. The freedom and the bright hopes that cheer our path we would gladly impart to others. When pressed with the burden of our own sins, we are under restraint; but when freed from guilt and fear, we can plead for God with boldness.
VI. CONFIDENCE IN GOD‘S LOVE AND POWER AS A SAVIOUR. Our highest ambition is to “convert’ sinners, not to a Creed, or a party, or a Church, but to God. “To thee.” But this is God’s work. He only is able to make the Word effectual unto salvation. Having the witness in our own hearts of his saving might, we speak with all boldness. “The love of Christ constraineth us.”
VII. BRIGHTER HOPES OF THE FUTURE. There is a good time coming. The hope of this springs immortal in the hearts of the redeemed. When we are low, we take low views of things. If it be a dark time with ourselves, we are apt to despond as to the work of God in others. But when we are lifted up, all things seem possible. The future grows bright and yet brighter before us, and our hearts are thrilled with a foretaste of celestial joys. “Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb!”W.F.
Psa 51:3
A portrait.
Lord Macaulay tells us that the Earl of Breadalbane, who was the chief hand in the Massacre of Glencoe, never had rest afterwards. “He did his best to assume an air of unconcern. He made his appearance in the most fashionable coffee-house in Edinburgh, and talked loudly and self-complacently about the important service in which he had been engaged in the mountains. Some of his soldiers, however, who observed him closely, whispered that all this bravery was put on. He was not the man that he had been before that night. The form of his countenance was changed. In all places, at all hours, whether he waked or slept, Glencoe was for ever before him“. So it was also with David. As Chrysostom has said, “He carried in his bosom a painted picture of adultery and murder.” Let us consider this.
I. THE SUBJECT OF THE PAINTING. Sin is everywhere. It is in the world, in society, in our friends, but worst of all it is in our own hearts. “My sin!” What is “before” us is not the sins of others, but our own sins, or perhaps some particular sin that stands out in all its hideousness and enormity.
II. THE MEANS BY WINCH THE PAINTING IS WROUGHT OUT. It is not said before the world or the Church, but “before me.” Everything is individualized.
“Awakened conscience acts the artist,
Uses the sun of heaven’s law
To photograph the sinner’s life;
Then holds it up, a hideous monster,
To the affrighted eye!”
But conscience has its allies. There is memory. All that we have thought and felt and done, all the varied events and experiences of our life, are recorded by memory, Much may seem to be forgotten, but nothing is really lost. Go where you will
Yet doth remembrance, like a sovereign prince,
For you a stately gallery maintain of gay and tragic pictures?
“My sin!” It is there, in memory, to be brought out at the call of conscience.
“The austere remembrance of that deed
Will hang upon thy spirit like a cloud,
And tinge its world of happy images with hues of horror.”
There is also association. One of its chief uses is to add force to conscience. We are strangely linked with the past. A book will recall the giver. A letter will start various trains of thought, according to its contents and the circumstances in which it is received. A portrait will bring up memories of the departed. Remember how Cowper’s heart was moved by the portrait of his mother”faithful remembrancer of one so dear.” So it is as to our sin. The place, the surroundings, the circumstances, or some link of association, may bring all the past before us fresh as a yesterday event. Remember Pharaoh’s butler (Gen 41:9), the widow of Zarephath (1Ki 17:18), Peter the apostle (Mar 14:72). And what is presented to conscience by memory and association, the imagination works out with powerful effect, brining in not only the past, but the future, the terrible result. But besides all this, we are to take into account the hand of God, working by conscience through providence and Holy Scripture. David’s eyes were opened by the ministry of Nathan. He presented his sin to him in a parable, and then brought it home to himself in demonstration of the Spirit. “Thou art the man!” And so it is still. “By the Law is the knowledge of sin;” “When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” We have a striking illustration of this in Augustine (‘Confessions,’ bk. 8. Psa 7:1-17): “Thou, O Lord, whilst he was speaking, didst turn me round towards myself, taking me from behind my back, where I had placed me, unwilling to observe myself, and setting me before my face, that I might see how foul I was, how crooked and defiled, bespotted and ulcerous.” Sooner or later, this vision will come to us all. “My sin is ever before me.” This may be the cry in the torments of hell, and then there is no hope. It may be said under the power of a guilty conscience, and then the answer is, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!”
III. THE FEELINGS WITH WHICH THIS PAINTING SHOULD BE CONTEMPLATED, The sight is painful, but salutary. If it humbles us, it leads us to exalt God. If it embitters sin to us, it endears Christ to us, and binds us for ever to him in love and devotion.
1. Sense of personal guilt. “My sin.” We may have been tempted; but in the deepest sense the guilt is ours, surely and inalienably. Our sins are more our own than anything else we possess. With this conviction we cry, “What shall we do?”
2. Grief and self-abasement. Others may speak of “my place,” “my merits,” “my services;” but for me it is “my sin.” The more we study this picturelooking at it in the light of the crossthe more vile and wicked do we become in our own eyes. We see ourselves as God sees us, and are filled with amazement and horror. Besides, we come to understand that our sin is not a casual thing, but the product of the sinful heart within. True grief will lead to sincere and full confession, and confession to forgiveness. When we justify God, God will justify us.
3. Simple and unfeigned faith. Despairing of ourselves, we cease from our own works, and cast ourselves upon the mercy of God. We accept the testimony which God has given of his Son, and, trusting in him, we find peace.
4. Adoring gratitude and love. To whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much. We owe everything to Christ, and the love of Christ constraineth us (2Co 5:14, 2Co 5:15). The thought of the sins of the past, which we carry with us, will not only make us humble and watchful, but stimulate us to increasing love and zeal in the service of him who hath redeemed us by his precious blood.W.F.
Psa 51:5-7
Secrets of the heart.
“Behold!” This is a word of power. It takes hold. It demands attention. It marks the solemnity and seriousness of the things to be brought before us. The veil is so far lifted. In the light of God, we get glimpses into the awful secrets of the heart.
I. THE SECRET OF SIN IS FOUND IN THE CORRUPT HEART. The first thing that startles and staggers us may be some actual transgression; but as we consider the matter, we are forced back and back, and closer and closer, till we end with the corrupt heart. Sin is everywhere; but always, when we seek its origin, we come to the same source. We may not be able to explain fully why and how the heart is corrupt, but of the fact there can be no question. It is better to seek deliverance from the pit, than to weary and vex ourselves in vain with inquiries how we came there.
II. THAT THE EVIL OF SIN IS SEEN IN THE CONTRADICTION OF TRUTH. What God desires must be right and good. But instead of “truth in the inward parts,” it is the opposite. Instead of law, there is self-will; instead of order, there is confusion; instead of the unity of the Spirit, there is enmity and strife. The mind and the will are in contradiction to God. It is this that makes the disease so desperate, and the remedy so difficult (Gen 17:9). We might make clean the outside of the cup, but it remains defiled within. We may whitewash the sepulchre, but after all it is a sepulchre, full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness. Helpless, and well-nigh despairing, our cry is, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?”
III. THAT DELIVERANCE FROM SIN CAN ONLY BE EFFECTED BY THE RE–ESTABLISHMENT OF GOD‘S AUTHORITY IN THE HEART. Healing that does not go to the root of the disease is vain and delusive. The heart must be made right or nothing is right. This is the work of God through Christ Jesus (Rom 6:8-14). It is not slight, or half-and-half work, but thorough. We cannot serve two masters. But by the grace of Christ we are saved from the bondage and misery of our old master, and God is again enthroned in our hearts as our true and rightful Lord, whose service is perfect freedom, and whose rewards are peace and joy for evermore.W.F.
Psa 51:7
Whiter than snow.
Snow is remarkable for whiteness. As it glistens on the mountains, or lies in virgin purity on the fields, what can compare with it? And yet David speaks of something whiter. Where? Not in nature, but in the kingdom of grace. Of whom? Not Christ, not the holy angels, not the saints in glory, but, strange to say, of himself. Like Paul, he was “the chief of sinners,” and he was, therefore, the fitter ensample of the marvellous kindness and grace of God. In his prayer we find
I. THE RECOIL OF THE SOUL FROM SIN. Many find pleasure in sin; but when once the soul is quickened, there is an end to this. Sin is felt to be vile and loathsome. Its touch is defilement; its presence is abhorrent; its effects are dreaded as the most terrible.
II. THE YEARNING OF THE SOUL FOR PURITY. All things around us that retain their freshness and their purity condemn us and put us to shame. They show what we have lost; they intensify our pains and our sorrows. At the same time, they help to keep alive our hopes. While they testify that we are fallen, they testify also that sin is not of our true naturethat it is not something that rightly belongs to us, but that it should be abjured and abhorred. The more we compare ourselves with God’s Law, and the more truly we realize God’s will concerning us, the more earnestly shall we cry for deliverance.
III. THE SUPREME TRUST OF THE SOUL IN GOD. There is the cry, “Wash me!” This implies weakness and submission. We cannot “wash” ourselves. Our tears and prayers, our penitences and endeavours, are in vain. We cast ourselves implicitly upon God. Let God, who is holy and good, do this great thing for us, and do it in his own way. It is not the priest, it is not the saints; God only can save. There is also the glad faith. “And I shall be whiter than snow.” The lost purity will be restored. What God does, he does perfectly. What joy in being “whiter than snow”!not only pardoned (Isa 1:18), but cleansed (1Jn 1:7; Rev 7:14). It is heaven begun.W.F.
Psa 51:10, Psa 51:17
True prayer.
Prayer is the index of the heart. When true, it is the “heart’s sincere desire,” and expresses not only the feeling, but the cry of the soul to God.
I. THE PRAYER HERE IS THOROUGH–GOING. It is not pardon that is askedthat has been obtained; but renewal. It is not present relief that is craved, but complete restoration, such a change wrought in the heart as is equivalent to a reconstruction, and as will re-establish and fix the right relation to God for evermore.
II. THIS PRAYER IS FOUNDED ON GOD‘S PROMISES. ‘%re should only ask for things agreeable to God’s will. Here we can have no doubt. What God wants is a “clean heart.” What God delights in is “a broken and a contrite heart.” When we look to ourselves, and remember God’s command, “Make you clean” (Isa 1:16); “Make you a new heart” (Eze 18:31), we are filled with despair. But when we look to God, and remember his promises, “A new heart will I give you’ (Eze 36:26), hope springs up anew. God’s commands are not the commands of a tyrant like Pharaoh (Exo 5:6-8), but of a Father great in love as in power. We should put his commands and his promises side by side, and then we have confidence that what we ask we shall receive.
III. THIS PRAYER IMPLIES COMPLETE SELF–SURRENDER TO THE WILL AND WAYS OF GOD. God is sovereign and holy. He has his own ways of working. We must be brought low before we are raised up. We must be emptied of self before we can be filled with the fulness of God. There will be not only the Word which quickeneth, but the rod which disciplineth (Psa 51:8).
IV. THIS PRAYER, FINALLY, LEADS TO A NEW LIFE OF LOVE AND OBEDIENCE. Life is made a sacrifice (Rom 12:1)offered, not on the altar of burnt offering, but upon the golden altar of incense; not as an atonement, for Christ’s blood alone maketh atonement, hut as a thanksgiving for redemption.W. F
Psa 51:11, Psa 51:12
A great evil deprecated, and a great good desired.
I. A GREAT EVIL DEPRECATED. The evil is twofold (Psa 51:11). It is felt that this judgment is deserved. God might justly do this. His presence had been outraged; his Spirit had been not only resisted and grieved, but for a time quenched. But such judgment would be utter ruin and woe, and it is shrunk from with horror. To be “cast away” was ruin, but to have “the Spirit taken away” was to have that ruin made complete and irremediable. It is only those who have the Spirit, and who know something of the joys of God’s presence, that can truly utter this prayer.
II. A GREAT GOOD DESIRED. The good is also twofold, meeting and matching the evil. “Salvation,” with its joys, is the remedy for the dreaded casting away. God’s free Spirit, with his loving and gracious upholding, is the sure deliverance from the woes of desertion. This prayer is very bold. At the very time when hanging on the verge of the precipice, the cry is made, not for arrestment, not for delay, not for mere mercy, but for complete restoration. The prayer is also far-reaching. It looks on. It sees dangers ahead. It contemplates the possibility of further sins and falls. But it also sees how all trials can be met and all temptation vanquished. The believer stands, as it were, on the Delectable Mountains, and sees the path clear before him; with the heavenly city gleaming bright in the distance. The prayer is urged with childlike trust and confidence. There is the consciousness of willingness, and, if the soul is willing, God must be willing also. What we desire, he who kindled the desire is able to accomplish. It is as when a child, with a sense of weakness, but with clinging love and trust, says to its father, “I am afraid. Take my hand. Guide me in the dark. Uphold me lest I fall. I cannot walk alone.” Thus peace and joy are brought to the heart. The believer, committing himself to the fatherly care of God, can tread with a free soul and a joyous step the way set before him, knowing that it leads to glory, honour, and immortality. In this great prayer there is hope for the chief of sinners, and comfort for the most troubled of saints.W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT
Psa 51:1-8
Repentance and forgiveness.
Some deny the Davidic origin of this psalm; but most refer it to the time when Nathan charged David with the sins of adultery and murder. In these verses we have set forth the nature of forgiveness, and the nature of repentance.
I. PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS.
1. Forgiveness is the inward and outward cleansing from sin. It is blotting out a record or a debt that is against usthat is, the outward cleansing. And it is a washing, or cleansing, or purging-that is, the inward forgiveness, or the taking away of sin. So that it is a double work.
2. When we become conscious of such forgiveness, we rejoice with a great gladness. (Psa 51:8.) The strength (bones) which sin has broken is restored and rejoices.
II. THE NATURE OF REPENTANCE.
1. It is a trust in the Divine goodness and mercy. (Psa 51:1.) Sorrow for sin without hope in God is remorse and deathnot repentance.
2. A consciousness that our sin is more against God than against man. (Psa 51:4.) “Inasmuch as ye did it against one of the least of these,” etc.
3. An acknowledgment of the Divine righteousness in the punishment he has suffered. (Verse 21.)
4. He not only confesses the sinful deed, but traces it to the inheritance of a nature sinfully inclined. (Psa 51:5.)
5. He prays for inward truthfulness and wisdom as his only safety for the future (Psa 51:6).S.
Psa 51:9-12
Renewal and elevation.
True repentance is not satisfied with the knowledge of forgiveness, but goes on to seek the renewal and elevation of the nature that has sinned and fallen into disorder.
I. HE SEEKS A NEW REVELATION OF THE FORCE OR FAVOUR OF GOD. (Psa 51:9.) “Do not look upon me in anger for my sins, so as to bring me into judgment, but lift upon me the glory of thy face, or presence.” And to this end
II. “CREATE IN ME A PURE HEART, THAT I MAY BE ABLE TO SEE THEE.” (Psa 51:10; Mat 5:8.)
III. “GIVE ME AGAIN A STEADFAST SPIRIT OF OBEDIENCE TO THY WILL.” (Psa 51:10.) A strong spirit not easily swayed to and fro through its own weakness, or by the gusts of temptations, but persistent in right aims and endeavours.
IV. HE PRAYS THAT HE MAY NEVER LOSE THE SUCCOUR AND STRENGTH OF THE DIVINE SPIRIT. (Psa 51:11.) Such a prayer on the lips of David could not mean all that it means now to a Christian. Christ has revealed the work and the necessity of the Divine Strengthener (the Paraclete) far more clearly than it was known to David. As the Teacher of the truth and the Helper of our weakness.
V. HE PRAYS FOR THAT SENSE OF JOY WHICH IS UNITED WITH THE SPIRIT OF A FREE OBEDIENCE. (Psa 51:12.) Our spirits attain to their greatest freedom when under the influence of the Spirit of Godlike water heated by fire.S.
Psa 51:12
The joy of salvation.
“Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with a joyful [willing] spirit.”
I. THAT THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SALVATION IS ACCOMPANIED WITH A GREATER OR LESS DEGREE OF “JOY.” Salvation is a deliverance from the greatest danger the soul can apprehend, and is, therefore, a cause of the most rapturous joy the soul can feel. It is preceded, in the majority of cases, by terror of the Divine anger; by the despair awakened by guilt; by the deep sorrow which distraction brings after it; till the revelation of the Divine mercy through Jesus Christ is embraced, and the way of escape is known, and then the soul is unable to restrain its joy. This is the outward aspect of salvation. Salvation as an inward fact is the enjoyment of a new state of the affections towards Christ, or love to God. And this is a perpetual spring of ever-increasing joy. Joy may become not a momentary rapture merely.
II. THAT BY THE INDULGENCE OF SIN WE FORFEIT THE JOY OF SALVATION. We may not utterly forfeit the hope of salvation; for hope is a thing of degrees: how long a faint hope may linger, and in connection with how much sin, is a practical question difficult of determination! The question of our personal salvation may become even to ourselves a very debatable, doubtful question, a struggle of hope against despair. Here certainly the joy of salvation is forfeited. Then, again, though the hope may not be gone, there may be so much remorse and sorrow in consequence of sin as to destroy all the joy which is connected with an assured state of the heart.
III. ON WHAT GROUND CAN WE PRAY GOD TO RESTORE WHAT WE HAVE SINFULLY LOST?
1. That God is the Author of all renewal and salvation in man‘s soul. This prayer is therefore a prayer for the renewal of the influence and work of the Holy Spirit: “Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.” It is called God’s salvation for which he prays.
2. This prayer for joy presupposes that which is the condition of all real joy. The previous work of deep, genuine sorrowrepentance and hatred of the sin which has caused the sorrow. This is the unalterable condition on which we obtain any lasting joy.
IV. THAT THE RECOVERY OF THIS JOY IS NECESSARY TO OUR FUTURE CONSTANCY. “Uphold me with a joyful spirit.” Doubt, sorrow, remorse, paralyze all the powers of prayer, action, resistance to evil. They are the sickness and disease of the soul. Joy quickens. A joyous, willing mind has strength for the future, because it has conquered in the past; for that is the condition of its joyousness.S.
Psa 51:13-19
Working for God.
With a conscience set free from guilt, with a heart renewed by the Spirit of God, and full of thankfulness for God’s great mercy, he cannot keep silent, but will seek to turn other sinners to God. The thirty-second psalm shows how this resolution was kept.
I. HE WHO BY HIS EXAMPLE HAD TAUGHT OTHERS TO SIN WILL NOW SEEK TO CONVERT THEM TO THE WAY OF OBEDIENCE. (Psa 51:13.) To the ways of God’s commandment. We cannot undo all the evil which our example has done; but we can in part repair it if we renew our lives.
II. DELIVERED FROM HIS SIN, HE WOULD PROCLAIM THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN PUNISHING AND DELIVERING HIM. (Psa 51:14.) God is good and righteous in bothin punishing and saving from sin. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
III. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF PARDONED SIN UNCLOSES THE LIPS WHICH SIN HAD SEALED, AND HE CAN NOW TRULY PRAISE GOD. (Psa 51:15.) God opens the lips by giving the sense of forgiveness; then we can preach and sing with a full heart.
IV. THE TRUEST SACRIFICE WE CAN OFFER TO GOD FOR OUR SIN IS REPENTANCE. (Psa 51:16, Psa 51:17.) Not blood or burnt offering; the cleansing of the heart by sorrow and renewal of mindthe work of God’s Spirit.
V. WHEN A MAN HAS BEEN TRULY RESTORED HIMSELF, HIS SYMPATHIES WIDEN OUT WITH PRAYER FOR THE NATION AND THE WORLD. (Psa 51:18, Psa 51:19.) Genuine concern for others is founded upon the regeneration of our own spiritual nature. Zeal for others is spurious if we have not been zealous about ourselves; like those philosophers Cowper speaks of
“Giving lives to distant worlds,
And trifling in our own.”
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Psalms 51.
David prayeth for remission of sins, whereof he maketh a deep confession: he prayeth for sanctification. God delighteth not in sacrifice, but in sincerity: David prayeth for the church.
To the chief musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
Title. lamnatseach mizmor ledavid. No one can read this psalm of David, but must see all the characters of true repentance in the person who wrote it, and the marks of the deepest sorrow and humiliation for the sins of which he had been guilty. How earnestly does he plead for mercy, and acknowledge his own unworthiness! How ingenuous the confessions that he makes of his offences! How heavy the load of that guilt which oppressed him! The smart of it pierced through his very bones, and the torture that he felt was as though they had been broken and crushed to pieces. He owns that his sins were of too deep a dye for sacrifices to expiate the guilt, and that he had nothing but a broken heart and contrite spirit to offer to that God whom he had so grievously offended. How earnest his prayers, that God would create in him a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within him! How does he dread the being deserted of God! How earnestly deprecate the being deprived of his favour, the joy of his salvation, and the aids and comforts of his holy spirit! Let but this psalm be read without prejudice, and with a view only to collect the real sentiments expressed in it, and the disposition of heart which appears throughout the whole; and no man of candour will ever suspect that it was the dictate of hypocrisy, or could be penned from any other motive than a strong conviction of the heinousness of his offence, and the earnest desire of God’s forgiveness, and restraint from the commission of the like transgressions for the future. Those who reflect upon David’s character on account of his conduct in the matter of Uriah, though they cannot too heartily detest the sin, and must severely censure the offender; yet surely may find some room in their hearts for compassion towards him, when they consider how he was surprised into the first crime, and how the fear and dread of a discovery, and his concern for the life of the woman whom he had seduced, led him on to farther degrees of deceit and wickedness, till he completed his guilt by the destruction of a great and worthy man; especially when they see him prostrate before God, confessing his sin, and supplicating forgiveness; and even exempted by God himself from the punishment of death which he had incurred, upon his ingenuously confessing, I have sinned against the Lord;
2Sa 12:13 an evident proof that his repentance was sincere, as it secured him immediate forgiveness from God, whom he had offended. See Chandler.
Psa 51:1. Have mercy upon me, &c. The gradation in the sense of the three words here made use of to express the divine compassion, and the propriety of the order in which they are placed, deserves particular observation. The first, rendered have mercy, or pity, denotes that kind of affection which is expressed by moaning over any object that we love and pity; that , natural affection, and tenderness, which even brute creatures discover to their young ones, by the several noises which they respectively make over them; and particularly the shrill voice of the camel, by which it testifies its love to its foal. The second, rendered loving-kindness, denotes a strong proneness, a ready, large, and liberal disposition to goodness and compassion; powerfully prompting to all instances of kindness and bounty; flowing as freely and plentifully as milk into the breasts, or as waters from a perpetual fountain. This denotes a higher degree of goodness than the former. The third, rendered tender mercies, denotes what the Greeks express by , that most tender pity which we signify by the moving of the heart and bowels, which argues the highest degree of compassion whereof human nature is susceptible. And how reviving is the belief and consideration of these abundant and tender compassions of God to one in David’s circumstances, whose mind laboured under the burthen of the most heinous, complicated guilt, and the fear of the divine displeasure and vengeance! The original word, mecheh, which we render blot out, properly signifies to wipe out, or wipe any thing absolutely clean, as a person wipes a dish. The original meaning is preferred, 2Ki 21:13. The purport of the petition is, that God would entirely and absolutely forgive him, so as that no part of the guilt he had contracted might remain, and the punishment of it might be wholly removed. Chandler.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psalms 51
To the chief Musician, a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness:
According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions:
And my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in thy sight:
That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest,
And be clear when thou judgest.
5Behold I was shapen in iniquity;
And in sin did my mother conceive me.
6Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts:
And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
7Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8Make me to hear joy and gladness;
That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
9Hide thy face from my sins,
And blot out all mine iniquities.
10Create in me a clean heart, O God;
And renew a right spirit within me.
11Cast me not away from thy presence;
And take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
12Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
And uphold me with thy free Spirit.
13Then will I teach transgressors thy ways;
And sinners shall be converted unto thee.
14Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation:
And my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
15O Lord, open thou my lips;
And my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
16For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it:
Thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
18Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion:
Build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
19Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering:
Then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Its Contents and Composition.A penitential Psalm of an almost evangelical spirit and character, which has been used by the Church in song and prayer oftener than any other in the Psalter (Luther). For the prayer for expiation through the mercy of God (Psa 51:1-2) is founded upon the penitent confession of his own grievous transgression (Psa 51:3-4) and the assurance that he who has been conceived and born in sin can obtain truth and wisdom only from God (Psa 51:5-6). On this foundation rises at first a double prayer for forgiveness of sins (Psa 51:7-9) and renewal through the Holy Spirit (Psa 51:10-12); then follows the vow of thanksgiving, partly in the instruction of sinners unto conversion, partly in the personal praise of God (Psa 51:13-15), because the will of God is not that external sacrifices should be brought, but He desires spiritual contrition of heart (Psa 51:17-18); finally there is an intercession in behalf of the bestowal of grace upon the entire people, in order that they may be in the right condition, with true disposition to offer likewise the external ritual sacrifices at Jerusalem prescribed in the law (Psa 51:18-19). It is very natural to suppose that the last two verses are a later, perhaps liturgical addition (Venema, Rosen., Maurer, Kster, Tholuck [Perowne, et al.], yet this is not entirely necessary (vide Psa 51:18-19). Still less are we compelled, in order to maintain the authenticity of the composition of this Psalm, to descend to the time of the exile at Babylon (De Wette), and explain it as a prayer of the nation (Paulus, Olsh.), or ascribe it to the author of Isaiah 40-66., as a prayer of the prophet, to support him in his calling (Hitzig). The latter reference to the prophets calling is forced by the most violent explanations. The undoubted similarities with Isaiah are not limited to the last chapters, so that it is more natural to suppose a manifold use of this Psalm by the prophet Isaiah (Delitzsch), and emphasize the thoroughgoing reference to 2 Samuel 12 (Hengst.), and indeed in these very expressions and turns of thought, which are not as it were usual phrases (Hupfeld), but relate to that very transgression of David and its consequences, which is mentioned in the title. The fact that this title uses the same word to designate the official coming of Nathan to David, and the sexual coming of David to Bathsheba (2Sa 11:4, comp. Gen 6:4; Gen 16:2), shows a carelessness of Hebrew style (Delitzsch) rather than a significant antithesis. (Stier, Hengst.). At any rate is not to be regarded as=such as, expressing the correspondence of guilt and punishment; but it is to be taken as a particle of time=when, which, connected with the perfect (1Sa 12:8; 2Sa 12:21), receives the meaning=after that, and indicates the pluperfect. Compared with Ps. 6. and 38. the feelings expressed here are in a more advanced stage, whilst the situation is the same. Psalms 32. carries out what is promised here in Psa 51:13.
Str. I. Psa 51:1. According to the greatness of Thy compassion blot out my transgressions.The plurality of his transgressions is not to be explained historically but psychologically. He prays that they may be blotted out or wiped away, either as letters, Exo 32:32; Num 5:23; comp. Psa 9:5; Psa 69:23, from the book of guilt (J. H. Mich., Rosen., et al.), or as clouds from the heavens by a wind, Isa 42:22 (Delitzsch). In this connection, however, we are not to think of the figure of filth (Stier), but of the idea of entire removal, 2Ki 21:13 (Hupfeld).
Psa 51:2. Wash me thoroughly, or wash me much. is hardly the full form of the imper. hiphil, for which is the shortened form (Geier, Rosen., De Wette, Stier after Aben Ezra and Kimchi), although, at times, the imperative of the auxiliary verb and the imperative of the principal verb, follow one another without the conjunction , comp. 1Sa 2:3 (Gesen. 139, 3 b.); but it is the infin. absolute (Kimchi, J. H. Mich alternately, Hitzig, Hengst., Hupfeld), used as an adverb (Ewald, 240 e., 280 c., Gesen. 128, 2), and here placed before the verb with emphasis, as in Ps. 131:7, before the noun. The washing is expressed by a verb which usually refers to cleansing the clothing by means of kneading, and thus designates the iniquity as filth deeply soiling him.Make me clean from my sin.This verb is used at the same time for declarative and actual purification, and represents the sin as a leprosy.It is unnecessary to inquire whether all these expressions refer more to the objective greatness of the guilt, in reference to which the greatness of Divine compassion is emphasized (Calvin, Geier, et al.), or to the subjective strength of the feelings (Hupfeld). For if the consciousness of his sin is directly mentioned as constantly before the Psalmist, whether as a ground of longing and prayer for forgiveness (Calvin, J. H. Mich., Stier, et al.), or as a motive for the fulfilment of this petition, because his confession indicates the presence of the condition of forgiveness (Geier, Rosen., Hengst.): he yet likewise afterwards not only mentions blood-guiltiness, in Psa 51:14, but in the immediate course of the thought, Psa 51:4, designates sin as evil before the eyes of God (Isa 65:12; Isa 66:4), and Psa 51:5 brings it in connection with the universal human sinfulness, and indeed not as an excuse (Flamin. and Rosen. after some Rabbins), but as a testimony to the depth of ruin and the enormity of transgression.
Str. II. Psa 51:3. For my transgressions I know.[Perowne: There is no need to render with the A. V. I acknowledge, though no doubt the confession of sin is implied. That, however, is not here prominent, but rather that discernment of sin and of its true nature which leads to a confession of it.C. A. B.]
Psa 51:4. Against Thee alone, etc.This expression does not say that the sin in question is to be regarded as idolatry, that is, as sin against the one only true God (Paulus), or as a then (in the exile or in the Maccabean time) unparalleled guilt (Olsh.). It certainly is not against the reference to the transgression of David against Bathsheba and Uriah. It does not mention this fact, but emphasizes the sinfulness of it, and shows that the speaker, in the sincerity and strength of his penitence, which corresponds with the depth of his knowledge of his sin, has in mind, not the injuries done to men, but his relation to God, which was thereby disturbed, to whom the sin as such refers, that is to say, according to its idea and nature, solely and alone. The word alone is not superfluous (Flacius), since it is rather indispensable to express the thought indicated above. Yet we must not limit the emphasis and tone to this word, but at the same time extend it to the word sinned. For the conception and designation of the nature of sin as opposition to the holy will of God, who not only alone recognizes the springs of sinful action in the interior of man (Kimchi), but is the only supreme lawgiver and judge, discloses a frame of mind (Hupfeld) in which the religious reference to God alone is felt (Flamin., Rosen., Maurer, De Wette), and therefore likewise urges to the seeking of purification and sanctification in God alone (Isaki, et al.). But this conception and designation is neither brought about by an abstraction from the appearances of sin, nor does it spring from a merely subjective frame of mind and feeling, but it originates from a knowledge of the essential relation of sin, and hence the objective truth of the clause is to be maintained.1 For since = states not the consequences but always the design or the aim, and moreover the context as well as the character of David excludes the interpretation that the Psalmist confesses, that he has sinned with the design or to the end that the righteousness of God might become manifest; these words must not be referred back to the thoughts contained in the prayer, Psa 51:1, or in the confession, Psa 51:3, but must be put in the closest connection with the words: against Thee alone and the evil in Thine eyes. It is not necessary then to insert the words: this I confess (Olsh., von Leng.). The Psalmist has by the confession in Psa 51:4 already renounced excuses and self-justification, and indeed every thought which might include an accusation against God, at the same time, moreover, by putting his act under the head of actions condemned by God, by condemning himself, he thus fulfills the purpose that the righteousness and purity of God should be presented and recognized in fact. The appearance of doing away with human freedom and of a Divine predestination of evil, which, moreover, Calvin did not find here, originates mostly from the fact that the speaking and judging of God is usually referred directly and immediately to the condemning oracle of Nathan, which it is admissible to make use of here only in a general way. Of course the reference is not to a judicial judgment of God absolving an accused person, as if the meaning were that no ones right is injured when God Himself is the offended person, and He bestows His grace upon the person who is deficient (Hitzig); still less is it of the speaking and internal judgment of God in the conscience of man (De Wette, Hupfeld). The expression is a general one, and is thus taken by the Apostle Paul, Rom 3:4, and secured from misinterpretation and misuse by a fuller explanation of the facts of the case.2 The sense is not essentially altered, although he cites from the Septuagint, which has the noun in Thy words, instead of the infinitive, and has taken the word in accordance with the usage of the Syriac, in the meaning of conquer, overcome, instead of be pure, and has taken the active judge as passive, which then, with respect to this passage of the Psalm, the interpreters with this conception, refer to the offence which the fall of a man like David had given (Calvin). The unusual pointing of , as the infinitive Kal, appears to have been chosen for the sake of similarity of sound with the parallel .
Str. III. Psa 51:5. Behold, in guilt was I born,etc.The Psalm does not refer to an adulterous action on the part of his mother, of a sinful condition of birth and generation (Isaki), although the word is generally used of the lust of animals, Gen 30:41; Gen 31:10, it merely refers to descent from sinful parents (Job 14:4), and inborn sinfulness, which with its guilt and its ruin is transmitted from parents to children, by means of natural propagation, so that they are infected with sin from their mothers womb and from their youth, Gen 6:5; Gen 8:21; Psa 58:4.
Psa 51:6. Behold, Thou delightest in truth in the reins,etc.Since Gods good pleasure and desire is directed to a truth present in the reins as the seat of the tenderest feelings (Chald., Jerome, Rabbins, Gesenius, Delitzsch), or, according to another derivation of the word: in the hiding-place, that is to say, in the most secret depths of the heart (Sept., Syriac, Jerome, Aben Ezra, Luther, Calvin, and most interpreters); he must pray that God will make known wisdom in the hidden parts. It does not mean secret wisdom, an understanding of the typical sense of the Old Testament ceremonies, or a deeper insight into the guidance of God, and into the secret of the atonement (most of the older interpreters, recently Stier), but according to the accents and the context, the correlative of truth, the practical wisdom of life, which God is to make known in the hidden parts, that is to say, internally in the heart, Job 38:36 (Rosen., Hengstenberg, recent interpreters). It is too narrow to regard truth as truthfulness, or sincerity in the knowledge and confession of sin (J. H. Mich., Tholuck, et al.); too wide to ex-plain it as the essence of all good (De Wette). It is the sincere nature corresponding with its ideal, whose character and reliability may be trusted, or the righteousness in accordance with the will and requirements of God, the true righteousness in contrast with lies, appearance, hypocrisy, Jos 24:14; Jdg 9:16; 1Ki 2:4; 1Ki 3:6; 2Ki 20:3; Psa 145:18 (Calvin, Hengst. et al.). The supposition that , in , is not the preposition but the initial letter, as Job 12:6, and that it is therefore to be translated: behold, faith Thou lovest, confidence (Hitzig), is opposed by the fact that the word in question is used in Job in the objective sense, but here is applied in the subjective sense, just as , which might indeed be translated: faithfulness, but is here taken by Hitzig as=, and this again explained as=, in the subjective sense; and all this in the interest of the hypothesis that a prophet speaks here, before whom there is an uncertain future, which he nominally longs for (Psa 51:10 b. 12), but really desires to be turned away (Psa 51:11; Psa 51:14), and now has become disquieted and faint-spirited, because things have turned out different from his expectations; yet now as a prophet, on account of his official duty, he has to look into the future, and has not yet lost all hope; hence the sense of the passage is said to be: Thou requirest likewise from me believing confidence, and this will I become partaker of, if Thou revealest to me hidden things.
Str. IV. Psa 51:7. Purify me with hyssop,etc.The Old Testament stand-point is disclosed in the fact that the means of purification are still designated figuratively and without a particle of comparison, by that symbol, with which the sprinkling of the men or things that had become unclean by contact with a corpse, Num 19:6 sq.; Num 19:18 sq., as well as the sprinkling of the leper, Leviticus 14., was performed, comp. Bhr, Symbolik des mos. Kultus II. 503. This stand point, however, is broken through by the fact, that there is no mention here of the priestly mediation, which was ordained as well for this act of sprinkling as for the washing of the clothing and bathing of the body, likewise mentioned here, but rather purification is implored directly from God, and the washing desired not for the clothing but for the person. Isa 1:18 makes use of Psa 51:7 b., where the redness of sin is brought in contrast with the whiteness of snow, which is occasioned by the mention of hands stained with blood, Isa 1:15.
Psa 51:8. Joy and gladness.These expressions frequently combined are always used of loud and festive manifestations of joy (Hupfeld). They accordingly designate, not the effect of a message of peace within the heart, as by the preaching of grace in the word of God (Luther, Calvin, Stier), or else a message which gives joy (Hitzig), but the expression of joy, which is here published by the speaker himself, and thereby brought to a hearing, and actually accomplished by the fact that the declaration of pardon made to David through Nathan, which had taken place historically long before the composition of this Psalm, and therefore cannot be meant here, has penetrated finally, after long struggle and conflict, into the penitent soul, even to the point where its internal appropriation and sealing by the Holy Spirit can be hoped for and implored.[Bones.Perowne: These are not merely as Hupfeld says, instead of the heart, but as constituting the strength and frame-work of the body, the crushing of the bones being a very strong figure, denoting the most complete prostration, mental and bodily, see Psa 6:2.C. A. B.]
[Psa 51:9. Hide Thy face.This is the angry face, the judicial look of God, vid. Psa 21:9.C. A. B.]
Psa 51:10-11. A pure heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.The pure heart, the condition of communion with God (Psa 73:1; Mat 5:8), is designated not only as a heart cleansed from sin (Act 15:9), but at the same time as a new heart, by the fact that it is implored from a creative act of God, from which likewise the renewal of the spirit (Ezek. 4:23) to a steadfast one takes place, that is to say to a spirit firmly grounded in Gods grace, and thereby not only fearless and confident (Psa 57:7; Psa 112:7), but firm (Psa 78:37). What is implored here does not go beyond that which is required in Psa 24:4; moreover it is promised by the prophets as a gift of God (Jer 24:7; Eze 11:19; Eze 36:26), and includes a change of disposition (1Sa 10:9), which presupposes and is conditioned on penitence, and at the same time a believing turning unto the Divine grace, as it is made known in the prayer, not to be cast away from the presence of God, that is to say, utterly rejected (2Ki 13:23; 2Ki 17:20; 2Ki 24:20; Jer 7:15), not to be deprived of the Holy Spirit (Isa 63:11), with which David had been anointed (1Sa 16:13). The context is opposed to the insertion of for ever (Kimchi), not less than the explanation that this is the prayer of one already converted (Calvin).3
Psa 51:12. With a willing spirit uphold me.The reference is not to a princely or guiding spirit (Sept., Vulgate, Isaki, et al.), or indeed to a mighty spirit (Jerome). The use of the Hebrew word in question for a person noble by birth (Job 30:15) or political rank, was rendered possible only after a series of intermediate steps. The fundamental meaning leads to the opposite of being legally necessary or externally forced, that is, to a being driven from within outwards (Exo 25:2), and accordingly to joyous willingness (Isa 32:8; Ps. 54:8). Grammatically this spirit of willingness can only be regarded as the subject nominative, and the following verb as the 3d per. fem. (Rabbins, Luther, Geier, J. H. Mich., et al.). But it is more in accordance with the context of the prayer to adopt the explanation which is likewise admissible, that the verb is the 2d masc. with double accusative, as Gen 27:37 (Sept., Jerome, Hengst., Hupfeld, Delitzsch). This part of the prayer affords a suitable transition to the following vow of true thank-offering, comp. Psa 32:8.
Str. V. Psa 51:13. I will teach, etc.The optative form includes at the same time the petition that he may do it or be able to do it, presupposes accordingly the consequences of his prayer, so that it is unnecessary to supply then (De Wette, Hengst., [A. V.]). The ways of God are either those in which God Himself walks, particularly His treatment of penitent sinners, which is favored by Psa 51:14-15 (Stier), or those ordained of God, upon which man is to walk, the commandments of God (De Wette, Hupfeld), which is favored by Psa 32:8 (Hengst.).[And sinners shall return unto Thee.Alexander: The Hebrew verb is not a passive (shall be converted) but an active form, shall turn or return to the Lord, perhaps with an allusion to the great apostasy, in which the whole race is involved. See above, in Psa 22:27. To this verse there seems to be particular allusion in our Saviours words to Peter, Luk 22:32.C. A. B.]
Psa 51:14. Blood-guiltiness, derived from the bloody deed, presses as a burden upon the conscience of David. Both ideas mingle with one another frequently in the Hebrew word which denotes primarily blood poured forth by violence, e.g. Psa 9:12; Psa 106:38. The prayer for deliverance seems to lead to the latter signification. Then we have to think of a hostile act directed against the Psalmist, a murder of the prophet which was to be feared (Hitzig) from men of blood (Psa 59:2), or of a still further effusion of blood which was expected by the people (Olshausen). But this passive reference of the word is unusual, so that the prayer for deliverance from impending death (Psa 33:19) affords no parallel. The deliverance is rather such an one which takes away the Psalmist (Psa 39:2) from the blood that he has shed. Since now the act cannot be undone, and can least of all be forgotten by the penitent himself, the expression manifestly refers to the expiation and forgiveness of guilt, which is referred to generally in this Psalm. The mingling of the idea of punishment (even by Hengst. and Hupfeld) can only work confusion, although fear of it, and remembrance of threatenings, as 2Sa 12:9 sq.; Gen 4:10; Gen 9:5 sq., might awaken and sharpen the consciousness of guilt.The righteousness of God is not that tempered by grace and changed into mercy (Calvin, Geier, et al.), or that bestowed upon the sinner by grace (J. H. Mich., Stier), but that attribute of God, by virtue of which He gives every one his dues, comp. 1Jn 1:9 (Hengstenberg), the general principle of the Divine government (Hupfeld).
Psa 51:15. The opening of the lips is not merely as a consequence of the forgiveness of sins in contrast with the silence of the anxiety of sin (Calvin, Geier, Hengstenberg, et al.), but at the same time as an act of God, which not only opens the mouth of His prophets and consecrates their lips (Isa 50:4 sq.; Eze 3:27; Amo 4:13), but likewise works thankfulness, and invokes the song of praise, Psa 42:9; Psa 49:5; Psa 71:15 (Hupfeld). This is, according to Psa 51:8; Psa 51:12, a rejoicing heart, and seems therefore to presuppose a glad heart.
Psa 51:16-17. A broken heart is designated as the essential thing in the offering well-pleasing to God, and indeed the , that is to say sacrifices, which word in accordance with usage is neither offering in general, or sin offering in particular, but constantly the peace offering brought by those already expiated and justified, the and the thank-offering . We must entirely reject the explanation that penitence has taken the place of the sin-offering, and indeed in the present case, because such an intentional transgression as that of David against Bathsheba and Uriah, allowed of no legal sin-offering (Rabbins, et al.), which cuts the nerve of the entire passage. The inadmissibleness of this interpretation is confirmed by the parallel mention of burnt offering , by the offering of which the renewed devotion to God and His service was fulfilled. But it is not only said that the glad thankfulness for the deliverance, favor, forgiveness of sins, comes from a broken heart as the condition of salvation (Hitzig, Delitzsch), or remains constantly accompanied by a pain on account of sin (De Wette), which was at the same time a measure of the thankfulness for the forgiveness of sins (Hengstenberg). The heart itself is the essential thing in all the sacrifices of thanksgiving. To bring this is not the only offering which God demands after the abrogation of the propitiatory sacrifice, because in it the man denies himself, and abandoning any merit of his own, implores his entire salvation from Gods grace alone through faith (Calvin); it is the sign that grace has broken the heart, and that the favored one, in true humility, regards himself unworthy of what God has done to him, Gen 32:10; Luk 5:8. The statement of Joshua ben Levi, imparted by Delitzsch from the Talmud Sanhedrin 43 b., is related with this: at the time when the temple was standing, he who brought a burnt-offering received the reward of such, and he who brought a meat-offering, the reward of such, but the humble is to the Scriptures as one who brought all the offerings at once. However, the explanatory addition to Psa 51:17 in Iren. IV. 17 and Clemens Alex. pdag. III. 12, gives the present statement a somewhat different turn: A savor well-pleasing to God, is a heart which praises Him who has smitten it. Moreover, it is not to be left out of consideration that Psa 51:17 b. leads back, not to the means of forgiveness of sins, but rather to the subjective prerequisite and condition of it, which the Psalmist, still imploring forgiveness, experiences in himself as a personal condition of heart, and to this unites a hope, which in Isa 57:15 is sealed by the consolation of the prophecy, that God will take up His abode in such hearts as these.
Str. VI. Psa 51:18-19.Do good, etc.The remark made in the previous verse enables us to conceive of the use of this verse in the spiritual and New Testament sense. But this does not allow us to explain this passage in the typical or Messianic sense of the spiritual edification of the congregation (Flam.), or of the spiritual offerings of Zion built up again of broken and restored hearts (Stier). Psa 51:19 speaks of real Old Testament offerings, and indeed again of thank-offerings, especially consisting of sacrifices of bullocks, which are designated directly as burnt-offerings, and by the word , not as perfect (Maurer), but, in accordance with usage, whole burnt-offerings, that is, as offerings which were to be entirely consumed, and here apparently not the whole vegetable offering, Lev 6:15, but that identical with the burnt-offering, 1Sa 7:9, of which the offerer did not receive a part as they did of the shelamim. These sacrifices, the Psalmist foresees, would be brought upon the altar after that God in His favor had done good to Zion, and built the walls of Jerusalem; and his prayer is that God may do this. There is not a syllable in the text to indicate that Gods grace was turned again to Zion, which would presuppose an apostasy of the people, or of a rebuilding of the walls which had been destroyed, by which either this concluding strophe or the whole Psalm would be pressed into the time of the Exile. The author has spoken only of his own guilt; since, however, he has mentioned its connection with universal human sinfulness, the transition in the prayer to intercession has been sufficiently prepared. If now David is the petitioner, it involves not only an extension of the view in the direction of his royal glance in general, but in view of the threatening, 2Sa 12:10, he must fear that evil would come from his sin upon the whole nation (Hengstenberg), and therefore feel himself impelled especially in his prayer for personal pardon, finally for constant exhibitions of the Divine favor to Zion and Jerusalem. The building of the walls is in contrast with the tearing down (Psa 89:40), and includes the idea of duration and preservation, Psa 89:3 sq. Thus the statement is explained without difficulty and without its being necessary to regard the building of the walls of Jerusalem round about by Solomon, 1Ki 3:1, as the fulfilment of this prayer of David.There is no inconsistency with Psa 51:16, as those suppose who regard the closing verses as a later attempt to restore the offerings rejected in Psa 51:16 (Kster, Maurer, Tholuck), or who suppose that Psa 51:16 merely says that God has no pleasure in the offerings which might be brought during the exile in the heathen land, since the only admissible place for the bringing of the true and legal offerings was Jerusalem (Isa 36:7), where then after the restoration of the city they should be brought in the true and proper manner (Paulus, De Wette, Hitzig). All these suppositions are as untenable as they are unnecessary. For it follows from Psa 51:17, where the offerings well-pleasing to God are described, that the reference in Psa 51:16 is not to accidental deficiencies, external hindrances, ritual incompleteness, but that the thought is entirely parallel with that expressed in Psa 40:6 sq.; Psa 50:8 sq.; and Psa 51:19 shows, not that moral actions are described symbolically as offerings, but that the thank-offerings, which were to be brought on the altar at Jerusalem after the experience of the favor of God, are not offerings of merely ritual value, but offerings of righteousness (Psa 4:5), that is to say, such as are brought with the disposition well-pleasing to God, demanded likewise by the law, Deu 33:19; comp. Num 26:31. Finally it is commonly overlooked that the Psalmist expresses as a prophet of God in Psa 51:16-17 a doctrinal statement, and in it a truth of universal application, while in Psa 51:19 he proclaims a fact, the historical occurrence of which may be expected as the consequence of the hearing of his intercession.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. It is very gracious in God not to leave the believer, who has fallen into sin, to himself or his sad condition, so likewise not to send the judge, but the preacher to his house, and by the proclamation of His word chastise him earnestly it is true, yet likewise call him to repentance and point out and lead him in the true way of gaining forgiveness of sins and spiritual renewal: and it is a sure sign of the efficacy of this grace, when the chastised sinner does not creep behind his exalted position in the world, excuse himself with the universal inborn sinfulness, comfort himself with his previous state of grace, justify himself with his services and offerings in the worship of God, but unreservedly confesses his trespasses, experiences sorrowfully his guilt and his ill-desert, seeks expiation and improvement by faith in the saving grace of God, and implores for both purposes the efficacy of the ordinary means of grace and the aid of the Holy Spirit.
2. It is true, we must distinguish between personal sin and original sin; yet we must not overlook or undervalue the close connection between them. But we should not derive from this any excuse to weaken, but rather an occasion of increasing our penitence, and the more unconditionally feel ourselves driven to seek our deliverance in God alone, as all our sins and those of our race in their deepest ground and according to their innermost nature, are a manifestation of a moral apostasy from God, occasioned by unbelief and disobedience. Even on this account the particular sin which in its extreme form has terribly and painfully torn asunder human relations, may yet not be experienced by the penitent as a violation of human ordinances, or be designated as a trespass committed against man, but may awaken in him the feeling that he has to do, essentially and properly, with God alone. In Gods eyes sin has always been evil, whilst human eyes have often been blinded to it. But Gods guidances lead to this, not only that His judgment should be actually exhibited, but likewise expressly recognized. Thus even the sin itself must finally serve to glorify God, comp. Exeget. and Crit. II. 4.
3. The human soul is so darkened and ruined in consequence of original sin, that the sinner is unable to know or to love the truth in his souls experience, not to speak of gaining it again, without the guidance of Divine wisdom. The sinner is not at all in the position of moderating his misery or changing his condition. He must turn entirely to the mercy of God, and abide there in order to gain expiation as well as a change of heart and improvement in life, and he must use penitently and believingly the prescribed means of grace. Only thus does the true and blessed co-operation of the Divine and human spirits take place, but this is not synergism.
4. It is true, the Old Testament knew of the connection between expiatory offerings and atonement, yet not of the complete and only sufficient offering for the the sins of the whole world. Hence the idea moves partly in insufficient figures and comparisons only approximating the true sense, partly in types and symbols straining to express their meaning and exciting the expectation and attention. But the idea of the offering itself is thus in particular turned by a purer interpretation into the subjective and the moral, which is indeed an advance compared with the merely legal and ritual fulfilment of the offering, but yet is only a transition from the law to the gospel. For the breaking of the heart and spirit is indeed a worthier offering than the slaying of animals; but it cannot take their place, since it is not a means of atonement, but on the one side a characteristic of true penitence, on the other a condition of the efficacy of the Divine grace in the penitent person, in order to the purification of the heart as well as to the renewal and strengthening of the spirit. As long as the objective and absolutely sufficient means of atonement and salvation were missing, it was therefore necessary that there should be animal offerings, with the required disposition as the true offerings of righteousness, and that they should be demanded and performed with like satisfaction.
5. The conversion of the sinner is under all circumstances a miracle and gracious work of God on the ground of a moral and religious process, for which the Lord is entitled to thanks from the individual and the congregation. This thanksgiving will be the more lively the stronger the feeling of delight which the delivered one has in contrast with the pain of his previous condition; the more instructive, the richer the experience of the pardoned one in both of his situations; and the more perfect, the more sincerely we offer ourselves, in it as the offering always and everywhere well-pleasing to God, the bringing of which does not cease even in the new covenant, but is then first made entirely possible, Romans 12.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Although sin may have become great, grace is still greater; but it is not easy for the sinner to resign himself entirely and fully.No man is placed so high, that he cannot fall deep into sin; but the deeply fallen may be lifted up again by the mercy of God, if he repent.God can chastise more severely with His words than with the rod; but the same word of God has likewise balsam for the wounds.Men can bring no offerings which expiate their sins, but such as express their desire of atonement with God, and which testify their thanks for the redemption that has taken place.True penitence has a hard beginning, a bitter course, and a glad end.Sin brings scarcely so much pain, however great it is, as conversion to God creates joy, if it is thorough and sincere.A converted man has not only joy in his heart, but likewise pleasure in praising God, and in laboring for the conversion of other sinners.We please God best when we place ourselves at His disposal as a thank-offering for His grace.Forgiveness of sins is not effected by penitence, but is neither sought nor gained without penitence.Without forgiveness of sins there is no pure heart, without change of heart and renewal there is no steadfast and willing spirit.One may fall into sin and yet may not have fallen away from grace.The earlier the penitence, the super the salvation.There are many ways into sin, but only one way out of sin.The contrast of what we are by nature and birth, and what we become by grace.The misery of sin is very deep and full of pain, but the well of grace is deeper still and full of joy.
Luther: Two things are necessary to true penitence: (1) that we recognize sin and then likewise grace; (2) that we know and believe that God desires to be gracious and merciful to all who believe in Christ.David speaks not only with God, but with his Father God, whose promise he knows, and whose grace and mercy have been bestowed.If we would speak and teach properly respecting sin, we must consider it and point it out more deeply in its roots, and in the entire ungodly nature that it produces, and not notice only the sins which have been committed.For from the error that sin is not known nor understood, arises still another error, that grace is neither known nor understood.If we have received the righteousness and grace of God through faith in Christ, we can do no greater work than speak and preach the truth about Christ Jesus.If, however, one would confess Christ and His word, a glad spirit is necessary.Calvin; We certainly cannot know our sins thoroughly in any other way, than by charging our entire nature with corruption. Yet every individual sin should lead us to this general knowledge, that only ruin rules in all parts of our soul.
Starke: David has many followers in sin, but sad to say, only few in true penitence, especially among the great.If a man after Gods own heart can fall into great sins, what watchfulness and perseverance in prayer is necessary for those who fall far short of this advantage!A penitent man seeks earnestly with God as well the grace of forgiveness as likewise the grace of improvement.God alone can make the heart contrite, so He alone can comfort it mightily.The restoration of the lost image of God demands no less Omnipotence than the first creation.As the goodness of a tree may be known by its fruits, so likewise justification from diligence in sanctification.Let every converted man see to it, that he likewise deliver the soul of his neighbor from the rage of Satan by word and conversation.The stronger and more sure we experience the forgiveness of sins in the heart, the more fervently we can praise God for His grace.If Jerusalem is to be built, Babel must perish.
Osiander: Where Gods grace and mercy are involved, our merit has no place.In spiritual things we can do nothing of ourselves, unless the Holy Ghost helps us and impels us.Selnekker: No one should be proud of his gifts, which he has received from God, but constantly should stand in fear, and think more of that which he lacks and needs, and how full he is of sins and impurity, than of his own excellence.Frisch: The fall of the great saints should make the little saints tremble (according to Augustines saying: casus majorum sit tremor minorum). They stand not as examples of falling, but of the rising up of those who have fallen.Arndt: It is a characteristic of true penitence and conversion, that we should properly know the grace of God from the word of God, and that we should not make Gods mercy less than our sin, or our sin greater than Gods mercy.Sin and trespass are constantly before the eyes of an evil conscience; it cannot be delivered from them or forget them.Faith does nothing by compulsion, but voluntarily, out of pure love and thankfulness.Umbreit: Righteousness writes down our transgressions, love wipes them out.David has transgressed greatly against men, but to his God alone has he sinned.Tholuck: The beginning and end of all improvement must be in Gods power.Guenther: When kings sin, the guilt and punishment of their sins come upon their people likewise; and when kings repent before their people, the blessings of the gracious condition now attained stream out likewise over the whole people.Taube: There are two principal fruits of every thorough conversion, that they now work and live for the salvation of their neighbors and the glory of God.The way of penitence is at the same time a way of faith and favor.Gerock: What are the offerings which please God? (1) The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world; (2) an anxious and contrite heart; (3) the vow of thankful love and new obedience.
[Matt. Henry: Though God may suffer His people to fall into sin, and to lie a great while in it, yet He will by some means or other recover them to repentance, bring them to Himself, and to their right mind again.Those that truly repent of their sins will not be ashamed to own their repentance; but, having lost the honor of innocents, will rather covet the honor of penitents.The great thing to be aimed at in teaching transgressors, is their conversion to God; that is a happy point gained, and happy they that are instrumental to contribute towards it. F. W. Robertsons Sermons: In our best estate and in our purest moments, there is a something of the devil in us which, if it could be known, would make men shrink from us. The germs of the worst crimes are in us all.Personal religion is the same in all ages. The deeps of our humanity remain unruffled by the storms of ages which change the surface.From his first moments up till then, he saw sinsinsin; nothing but sin.It is not the trembling of a craven spirit, in anticipation of torture, but the agonies of a nobler one in the horror of being evil.Barnes: The only hope of a sinner when crushed with the consciousness of sin is the mercy of God; and the plea for that mercy will be urged in the most earnest and impassioned language that the mind can employ.The only way to enjoy religion is to do that which is right, the only way to secure the favor of God is to obey His commands; the only way in which we can have comforting evidence that we are His children is by doing that which shall be pleasing to him, 1Jn 2:29; 1Jn 3:7; 1Jn 3:10. The path of sin is a dark path, and in that path neither hope nor comfort can be found.Spurgeon: None but a child of God cares for the eye of God, but where there is grace in the soul, it reflects a fearful guilt upon every evil act, when we remember that the God whom we offend was present when the trespass was committed.Gods voice speaking peace is the sweetest music an ear can hear.Never yet has God spurned a lowly, weeping penitent, and never will He while God is love, and while Jesus is called the man who receiveth sinners.A saved soul expects to see its prayers answered in a revived Church, and then is assured that God will be greatly glorified.C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[1][Perowne: All sin as sin, is and must be against God. All wrong done to our neighbor is wrong done to one created in the image of God; all tempting of our neighbor to evil is taking the part of Satan against God, and so far as in us lies, defeating Gods good purpose of grace towards him. All wounding of another, whether in body or soul, is a sin against the goodness of God. Vide 1Co 8:12; Mat 25:40; Mat 25:45. Hengstenberg: How must David have trembled, how must he have been seized with shame and grief, when he referred everything to God, when in Uriah he saw only the image of God, the Holy One, who deeply resented that injury,the gracious and compassionate One, to whom he owed such infinitely rich benefits, who had lifted him up from the dust of humiliation, had so often delivered him, and had also given him the promise of so glorious a future!C. A. B.]
[2][Perowne: The Biblical writers drew no sharp, accurate line between events as the consequence of the Divine order, and events as following from the Divine purpose. To them all was ordained and designed of God. Even sin itself, in all its manifestations, though the whole guilt of it rested with man, did not flow uncontrolled but only in channels hewn for it by God, and to subserve His purposes. Hence, God is said to have hardened Pharaohs heart, to have put a lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets, to do evil as well as good in the city, and the like. We must not expect therefore that the Hebrew mind, profoundly impressed as it was with the great phenomena of the universe, and beholding in each the immediate finger of God, but altogether averse from philosophical speculation, should have exactly defined for itself the distinction between an action viewed as the consequence, and the same action viewed as the end of another action. The mind which holds the simple fundamental truth that all is of God, may also hold, almost as a matter of course, that all is designed of God.C. A. B.]
[3][Perowne: The petition expresses rather the holy fear of the man who has his eyes open to the depth and iniquity of sin, lest at any moment he should be left without the succor of that Divine Spirit, who was the only source in him of every good thought, of every earnest desire, of every constant resolution. It is the cry of one who knows, as he never knew before, the weakness of his own nature, and the strength of temptation, and the need of Divine help; and to whom therefore nothing seems so dreadful as that God should Withdraw His Spirit.It is better, however, to fix our mind upon the Holy Spirit which David possessed as the anointed of Jehovah, and whilst not confining our attention to this. yet let it be the central thought. This Holy Spirit had been troubled and wounded by Davids great sin, and he was in danger of having the Holy Spirit taken from him, as it had been from Saul, and he himself rejected from the angry presence of Jehovah, and another anointed in his stead. He realizes his official as well as his private sin, and its guilt and evil consequences, and whilst imploring a pure heart and steadfast spirit, he prays that he may remain in the presence and favor of God, and retain and enjoy the Holy Spirit, and the grace with which he had been anointed by Samuel.C. A. B.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 585
TRUE PENITENCE DESCRIBED
Psa 51:1-3. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions! Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me.
SIN is, for the most part, thought a light and venial evil, especially amongst the higher ranks of society: as though the restraints of religion were designed only for the poor; and the rich had a dispensation granted them to live according to their own will. But sin, by whomsoever committed, will, sooner or later, be as the gall of asps within us; nor can all the charms of royalty silence the convictions of a guilty conscience. View the Psalmist. He had been elevated, from the low condition of a shepherds boy, to a throne: yet, when he had offended God in the matter of Uriah, there was not found in his whole dominions a more miserable wretch than he. Before his repentance became deep and genuine, his bones waxed old through his roaring all the day long: for day and night Gods hand was heavy upon him; and his moisture was turned into the drought of summer [Note: Psa 32:3-4; Psa 38:2-8.]. Even in his penitence we may see how heavy a load was laid upon his mind. This psalm was written on that occasion: and the words before us, whilst they declare the workings of his mind, will serve to shew us, in a general view, the true penitent:
I.
In his occasional approaches to the throne of grace
Mercy is the one object of his desire and pursuit. Observe,
1.
His petitions
[Have mercy upon me, O God; blot out my transgressions! wash me throughly from mine iniquities; and so cleanse me from my sin, that no stain of it may remain upon my soul! Here he views his sins both individually and collectively; and, spreading them before the Lord with conscious guilt, he implores the forgiveness of them: dreading lest so much as one should be retained in the book of Gods remembrance, as a ground of procedure against him in the last day Thus will every true penitent come to God: and plunge, as it were, into the fountain of the Redeemers blood, the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness ]
2.
His pleas
[Though David had, till the time of his grievous fall, served God with a more than ordinary degree of zeal and piety, he makes no mention of any past merits, nor does he found his hope on any future purposes. He relies only on the free and sovereign grace of God, as displayed towards sinners in the gift of his only dear Son: and to that he looks, as the ground and measure of the blessings he implores. This is the view which every true penitent must have. He should see that God is of his own nature inclined to mercy [Note: Exo 34:6-7.]; and that all which Christ has done for us is the fruit of the Fathers love [Note: Joh 3:16. Eph 2:4-5. Tit 3:4-5.]. Such are the pleas which God approves; and such will surely prevail in the court of Heaven.]
But, view the penitent farther,
II.
In the daily habit of his mind
Repentance is not a mere occasional expression of the mind, but a state or habit that is fixed and abiding in the soul. The true penitent, wherever he goes, carries with him,
1.
A sense of guilt
[His sin is ever before him: indeed, he wishes it to be so: he desires to be humbled under a sense of it: and though he longs to have his transgressions blotted out of Gods book, he would never have them effaced from his memory; or cease, if he could help it, to have as deep an impression of their odiousness and malignity, as if they had been but recently committed To his latest hour he would walk softly before God, in the remembrance of them.]
2.
A sense of shame
[He is ashamed when he reflects on his conduct throughout the whole of his life; yea, he blushes and is confounded before God [Note: Ezr 9:6.], and even lothes and abhors himself in dust and ashes [Note: Job 42:6.]. Nor does a sense of Gods pardoning love produce any difference; except, indeed, as enhancing the lothesomeness of his character in his own eyes [Note: Eze 36:31; Eze 16:63.]. The name which, in sincerity of heart, he acknowledges as most appropriate to him, is that which the Apostle Paul assumed, The chief of sinners.]
Address
1.
Those who are not conscious of having committed any flagrant transgression
[Many, doubtless, are of this character. But have they, on that account, any reason to boast? Who is it that has kept them? Who is it that has made them to differ? Will they themselves deny that the seeds of all evil are in them? or that, if they had been subjected to the same temptations as others, they might have proved as frail as they? Are they better than David previous to his fall? Let them, then, confess their obligations to God; and remember, that if in outward act they have less reason for humiliation than others, they have the same depravity in their hearts, and are in reality as destitute of vital piety as others; and, consequently, have the same need of humiliation and contrition as they.]
2.
Those who are deeply sensible of their guilt before God
[What a consolation must it be to you, to see that there was mercy even for such a transgressor as David. Greater enormity than his can scarcely be conceived: yet not even his prayers were poured forth in vain. Two things, then, I would say to you. The first is, Do not attempt to extenuate your own guilt, as though you would thereby bring yourselves more within the reach of mercy. The other is, Do not presume to limit Gods mercy, as though it could not extend to such a sinner as you. You never need be afraid of beholding your wickedness in all its extent, if only you will bear in mind that Gods mercy in Christ Jesus is fully commensurate with your utmost necessities or desires. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin: and the more you feel your need of it, the more shall you experience its unbounded efficacy. Only humble yourselves as David did; and, like him, you shall experience all the riches of redeeming grace.]
3.
Those who have obtained mercy of the Lord
[Happy, beyond expression, are ye! as David says; Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sin is covered. Be joyful, then, in God your Saviour. But still remember, that you have need at all times to watch and pray. If David, after all his high attainments, fell, who is secure? Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. And learn from him to guard against the very first approaches of evil. It was by a look that his corruptions were inflamed: and from the progress of evil in his heart, you may learn to make a covenant with your eyes, yea, and with your hearts too. You see in him how great a matter a little fire kindleth. Walk humbly, then, before God; and cry to him day and night, Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not!]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
CONTENTS
Here is a penitential Psalm, penned by David, as the title expresses it, upon a remarkable occasion; in which we trace the sorrowful workings of his soul in a devout humiliation before God.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba.
Psa 51:1
It is worthy our closest observation, in the very opening of this Psalm, and the subject connected with it, that at least nine months had passed by, after David’s falling into the foul crimes of adultery and murder before any remorse seems to have taken place in his mind; nay, so far from it, that when Nathan came to him with a message from God, because the man of God veiled his discourse in a parable, David’s heart took no alarm, and though alive to punish the man that had taken his neighbor’s lamb, never thought of himself having taken his neighbor’s wife, and having also caused him to be murdered. Alas! how doth sin harden? 2Sa 12:5-7 . We have here the devout actings of the soul, when awakened by grace to a sense of sin: all that we meet with, verse by verse, serves but to show the stirrings of a distressed, conscious, guilty soul, in the recollection of his foul ingratitude to God, and his base dishonesty to man.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Nature and Possibility of Forgiveness
Psa 51:1-2
I. The Forgiveness of Sins is an article of the Creed. It has its place in the short summary of great truths in which we profess as Christians to believe. Note the significance of this fact. We do not express our belief in what is obvious: the things we believe are truths which God has made known to us, that men did not and could not find out for themselves.
II. Now this consideration does not at all fit in, you will recognize, with the way in which a great many people speak and think about the Forgiveness of Sins. This they regard as the most obvious thing in the world, it is to their mind perfectly natural and easy, something to be taken for granted rather than treated as a subject of Christian revelation and belief. What we call moral evil may after all only be a step, in many cases a necessary step, upward to goodness. We must have some experience of evil before we can choose goodness, so they argue.
III. Now against any such light view of sin as this, however plausibly it may be urged, a healthy conscience protests as fallacious. We recognize sin to be something more than a mistake in the sphere of morals. A mistake indeed it is, egregious folly, missing the true end of our life, supposing that to be valuable which is really worthless or hurtful, but it is a mistake for which we are, in part at least, responsible. It is by our own great fault that we have sinned.
IV. It is well worth while to note that there is a great deal in modern thought to confirm these protests of conscience, a great deal that is utterly opposed to the popular and easy regard of sin. Note two points:
( a ) We are learning to recognize increasingly the reign of law. Things are as they are, not by chance, but as the expression of unfailing laws. This applies to the sphere of morals as well as to the material universe. God’s commandments are not arbitrarily laid down.
( b ) There is the law of habit as well as the law of retribution. There are those who would say, any restoration is impossible. Heredity, environment, and habit are too strong.
V. Here comes in the Christian religion declaring that these things are possible, however difficult. And the Christian Church points to instances of men and women, individuals and communities in whose experience this promise has been realized. The forgiveness of sins, then, though difficult, has been made possible.
VI. From what has been said you will recognize that ( a ) While forgiveness is not the easy thing that popular religion often represents it, ( b ) It is at the same time something far grander, much more worthy of God to bestow, of man to seek. Forgiveness contains two elements. It is no mere letting off of punishments or remitting of debt. It is restoration as well as acquittal.
References. Lev 1:2 . A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Manchester (2nd Series), p. 95.Lev 3 . J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons (2nd Series), p. 310. J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes (1st Series), p. 42. Bishop Alexander, Bampton Lectures, 1876, p. 71. A. C. Tait, Lessons for School Life, p. 249. Lev 3 , etc. A. B. Davidson, Waiting Upon God, p. 55.Lev 3 . J. H. Jellett, The Elder Son, p. 254. J. Keble, Sermons for Sundays after Trinity, part i. p. 188.
Sin Against God
Psa 51:4
This fifty-first Psalm reveals a human soul in its agony, convicted of sin, and flinging itself on the eternal mercy of God. It belongs to all the centuries, and as long as men struggle with temptation and fall beneath the burden of sin will it voice their need of pardon and their hope in God.
I. The truth on which this Psalmist laid hold was the fact that sin is a breach of the Divine order, a transgression of the Divine law, and that whatever may be said or thought about its effects in the sphere of human relations, it is essentially rebellion against that holy will which rules over all. We sin against God in every act of evil, because it is His law we break and His will we oppose.
II. This truth that sin is against God does not move us as it ought to do, largely, I think, for two reasons.
( a ) We feel the insignificance of our lives compared to the life of God. When we think of God we are overwhelmed by his infinitude. And though perhaps we dare not give expression to the thought, we feel in our hearts that our sin cannot be of much importance to one so great. And sometimes there comes the half-suppressed thought that He Who cannot fall, and who knows nothing of weakness or sin, ought not to judge mortals like ourselves.
( b ) We do feel that our sins, if they hurt anyone, injure ourselves and our fellows. We feel and many say that in the past men have said too much about sin against God, and have overlooked the fact that it is man who is hurt.
III. We are no longer moved by the thought of ‘Moral Governor of the universe’ as men were once. We do not deny that God is that. But for the reasons I have given it does not exert the same influence on us as in the past. And, after all, it is not the deepest truth about God. We must come to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ before we can say from our hearts, knowing and realizing to the full, all the social consequences of our wrongdoing. The cross of Jesus means many things, but it means this above all, that God is in the world, and that our sin touches Him, that it wounds Him and that He suffers.
The Psalm of the Penitent
Psa 51:4
There is nothing surprising about David’s sin: there is something very wonderful in his penitence.
I. There is the simple confession, ‘I have sinned’. It is comparatively seldom that a man makes this confession without qualification or reserve. It is a great day for a man when, for a moment, seeing himself in the light of God, seeing his own imperfections, his own sinfulness, whatever it may be, he can cast aside the vain excuses by which he has tried, like Adam, to hide himself among the trees of the garden, and, in deep self-abasement, can make the open confession, ‘I will arise and go unto My Father,’ and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned before Heaven and against Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son’. It is a rough path, which must be trodden with bleeding feet, but the way is homewards, Godwards, and the end is peace.
II. But let us notice the peculiar nature of the sin which the Psalmist confesses. It is an offence, so it would seem, not so much against God as his fellow-men, and yet his words are emphatic. ‘Against Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.’ We are accustomed to the service of man being set in opposition or contrast to the service of God. The Psalmist looks deeper. He has learnt the great truth that he can only honour man by honouring the Divine element in him, that in injuring man he has injured Him who is the only source of man’s greatness. This is the truth which the Incarnation has brought, or ought to have brought, much nearer to us than it was to David, ‘Inasmuch as ye did it unto these, ye did it unto Me.’
H. R. Gamble, Christianity and Common Life, p. 85.
References. Lev 4 . E. B. Pusey, Cambridge Lent Sermons, 1864, p. 163. J. J. Blunt, Plain Sermons, p. 72. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii. No. 86. Lev 5 . Bishop Magee, Sermons at the Octagon Chapel, Bath, p. 1.
Inward Truth
Psa 51:6
We in this country profess a great love of truth in the shape of integrity, verbal trustworthiness, and so on; our standard is not very exacting, but we could not get on at all without it. One has to confess that the standard of the world though, thank God, it is better than it once was is still very low. You cannot measure a man’s motives by what he says; he may take the name of God upon his lips though in his heart he is not true.
I. The issue lies deeper than a mere question, for instance, of discount on a bill. We say after long acquaintance with an individual ‘So and so is a true man; I have proved him’. Why do you use the word true? Because you know something about that man though it might not be considered proof in a court of law. You have been down to the depths of your friend’s being, and you know he rings true, because more than once he has been willing to suffer for truth, the world not knowing. On the other hand, we know men who we feel are false though we cannot always say why; and here again our evidence in a court of law would be nonsuited. There are men whom you would not trust any further than you can see them; you know somehow by instinct of honest judgment, that these men would fail you in a crisis; they could be depended on just as far as it suited their interest and no further. A man who is as faithful in the shadow as in the light, as faithful when it does not pay to be faithful at the time as when it does that is the man to whom to commit your trust; he was right with God ere he was right with you; and if it came to be a question whether he should sacrifice you or truth truth as Spurgeon understood it it would be God he would choose, not you.
II. I would just indicate wherein really consists the greatest value in all estimates of moral character. It is not merely a question of dealing between man and man. If we had nothing to preach about except iniquity, our pulpit message would be a poor one; I mean unequity, by which a man does not deal straight with his fellows. It is sin with which we have to do this is a man’s transgressions against God, the thing that hides God from him. When you are dealing with iniquity you are really dealing at the same time with another factor deeper than any of the relations which a man holds with his fellows, and that is his relationship with God. It is with God, when we come to real dealings with truth, that you and I hold relation.
III. One word of application. If I address a man of double life, a man with something evil huddled out of sight, I would like to speak to him, not a word of threatening denunciation, but of pity and of pleading. If your life is a lie it would pay you better I announce no penalty to get right with the truth, however much it may scorch you, than to persist in the lie that seems to screen you. The truth and the truth only will make a man at peace with himself. You may stifle the voice of conscience, but the voice of God will speak again in time or in eternity ‘Thou art the man’.
R. J. Campbell, Sermons Addressed to Individuals, p. 315.
Sincerity
Psa 51:6
God’s insistence on sincerity.
I. A Threefold Cause of Insincerity.
( a ) It is always a hard thing to be sincere. One cause of this is the fierce struggle for existence now. For one soul that has a passion for sincerity there are a hundred that have a passion for success.
( b ) It is harder to be sincere because of the increasing power of common standards. There never was a time when the thought of the many was so quickly voiced and registered. In the tremendous pressure of a general opinion it is harder for a man to be himself.
( c ) But perhaps the deepest cause of insincerity is this, that we are living in a transition time. Here in one pew a father and son are sitting; and though the father may never dream of it there is the space of centuries between the two.
II. A Threefold Curse of Insincerity.
( a ) It takes all the dignity out of the heart of life, and makes this world a very mean place.
( b ) But insincerity carries another curse. I hardly think that there is any sin that mars and distorts the character like this.
( c ) And the third curse is this. No sin so surely saps and undermines our influence. Once let man feel that I am insincere and all my influence for good, and all my influence for God is gone.
III. The Path to a Renewed Sincerity.
( a ) We must win a deeper reverence for ourselves. We must believe in individual possibilities. We must remember that there are no nobodies with God.
( b ) Then we must win a profounder faith in God. I defy any man to be consciously insincere who lives under those eyes that are a flame of fire.
( c ) We must gain a closer fellowship with Christ. There is a lack of sincerity today. But do not let that blind us to the fact that sincerity is not the only virtue I am not necessarily good. I am not necessarily right. I am not necessarily saved because I am sincere. There is a call for new sincerity in every heart, yet that sincerity is but a stepping-stone. Sincerity without humility is but a bastard virtue. It is the obstinacy out of which fools are made.
G. H. Morrison, Flood-Tide, p. 22.
References. Lev 6 . J. Keble, Village Sermons on the Baptismal Service, p. 125. LI. J. Knox, Little Manchester Sermons, p. 125. F. W. Farrar, In the Days of Thy Youth, p. 358. F. D. Maurice, Sermons in Country Churches, p. 190.
Psa 51:7
Probably the northernmost grave on the surface of the earth is one made for a member of the expedition of Sir George Nares to the Arctic Sea, in the ship Alert. It is near Cape Beechy, on the brow of a hill covered with snow, and commanding a view of crowded masses of ice which stretch away into the mysterious Northern Ocean, where, hung like a lamp over the door of the unknown, shines the polar star. A large stone covers the dead, and, on a copper tablet at the head, the words are engraved, ‘Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow’.
Verse 18. The first presbytery of the Irish Presbyterian Church was constituted by immigrants from Scotland, in Carrickfergus, 10 June, 1642. There were five ministers and as many elders. The sermon was from Psa 51:18 , ‘Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion; build thou the walls of Jerusalem’. Two hundred years afterwards, in 1842, every minister of the Church preached from this same text. There were then about five hundred.
John Ker.
References. Lev 7 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii. No. 1937. Alexander, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, p. 421.Lev 8 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv. No. 861. C. W. Furse, Sermons at Richmond, p. 154.Lev 10 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix. No. 490. J. Vaughan, Children’s Sermons, 1875, p. 229. B. B. Pusey, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii. p. 181.Lev 11 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvi. No. 954.Lev 12 . C. Bradley, The Christian Life, p. 30. J. Baldwin Brown, Aids to the Development of the Divine Life, No. 5. J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons (2nd Series), p. 159. Lev 13 . J. Duncan, The Pulpit and Communion Table, p. 310. Lev 14 . C. J. Ridgeway, The King and His Kingdom, p. 159. Lev 16:17 . F. D. Maurice, The Doctrine of Sacrifice, p. 86. J. A. Alexander, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, p. 639.
Psa 51:17
Dr. Whyte, in his small book on St. Teresa, mentions that this text was her continual cry till she died with these words on her lips, ‘A broken and a contrite heart Thou wilt not despise’. And thus, with the most penitential of David’s penitential Psalms in her mouth, and with the holy candle of her Church in her hand, Teresa of Jesus went forth from her banishment to meet her bridegroom.
References. Lev 17 . F. J. A. Hort, Village Sermons (2nd Series), p. 120. A. G. Brown, Penny Pulpit, No. 1056. Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons (3rd Series), p. 99. J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany, p. 357.
Psa 51:18
Henry Perreyve wrote to a friend who was about to visit Jerusalem:
‘Ah, my friend, help me and let us sing together; let us pray for the coming of that fair day when, the bonds of the earthly city being broken, she will soar like the eagle towards the regions of heaven. She will move onwards like a ship, towards the haven of her rest and of her glory. Let us plead that God may work: “Lord, do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion, build Thou the walls of the holy Jerusalem. There wilt Thou accept from our hands the burntoffering of the eternal sacrifice O Jerusalem, sing unto thy Lord, Zion, praise thy God.” That means, O my soul, O soul of my friend, sing unto Thy Lord, praise Thy God. All the Psalms, all the vows of Holy Scripture crowd into my heart. I can say no more, friend. But you have understood me. I repeat, kiss for me the soil of that holy land, and repeat to her those transports of love which the mere echo of her name still awakens in the hearts of her children.’
Lettres de l’Abb Henri Perreyve, pp. 69, 70.
References. Lev 18 . H. L. Thompson, The Church of St. Mary the Virgin, p. 98. W. M. Sinclair, Difficulties of our Day, p. 169. LI. International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 3.
Psa 51
In the Middle Ages, and after the Reformation, this was the Miserere, the last cry for mercy, sung, or heard, by those who were about to step into the presence of the judgment-seat. When it was read to Henry V. of England on his deathbed, the closing words, ‘Build Thou the walls of Jerusalem,’ seemed to fall on the ear of the dying man as a reproach, for he had cherished a vow, and he murmured, ‘If I had finished the war in France, and established peace, I would have gone to Palestine to rescue the Holy City from the Saracens.’ It was read to Lady Jane Grey and her husband, Guildford Dudley, when they were executed together, 22 August, 1553, read to her in Latin, and repeated by her in English. It was read also at Norfolk’s execution a few years later. It was the last prayer of Oecolampadius, who had his sickness aggravated and his death hastened by the untimely end of his friend Zwingle in 1531. He called the ministers of the churches round him, exhorted them to fidelity and purity of doctrine, prayed earnestly in the words of David in the 51st Psalm, and soon after died.
John Ker.
Psa 51
Edward Bickersteth, one of the home saints and heroes of C.M.S. history, wrote at the close of his life in his Journal: ‘O that the Lord should ever condescend to use one so sinful and unworthy. The 51st Psalm is the Scriptural prayer that most suits me.’
References. Lev 3 . J. N. Norton, The King’s Ferry Boat, p. 161. LII. International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 12. LIII. 2. Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons (2nd Series), p. 165. LIII. 6. W. N. Punshon, Sermons, p. 118. LIII. International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 16. LIV. A. Maclaren, Life of David, p. 100. Lev 4 . J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes (1st Series), p. 58. Leviticus 5 . W. M. Statham, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv. p. 248. Lev 6 . E. R. Conder, Drops and Hocks, p. 120. G. Dawson, Sermons on Daily Life and Duty, p. 1.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Psa 51
Verse 8. ‘Thou tellest my wanderings; put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?’ a verse frequently in the mouth of Archbishop Usher, one of the best and most learned men of his time born in Dublin, 1580, driven to and fro through England and Ireland amid the troubles in Church and State, during one of the most troublous times in our history, and at length finding the rest he often sighed for at Reigate in England, 1655, after he had preached the Gospel for fifty-five years.
John Ker.
References. Lev 8 . J. Ker, Sermons (2nd Series), p. 290. E. M. Goulburn, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii. p. 104. J. Vaughan, Sermons (9th Series), p. 69. Lev 9 . C. J. Vaughan, Voices of the Prophets, p. 94. LVI. International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 29. LVII. A. Maclaren, Life of David, p. 119. International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 37. C. Kingsley, Westminster Sermons, p. 302. LVIII. 1. J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 123. LVIII. 4. J. N. Norton, The King’s Ferry Boat, p. 126. LVIII. International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 42. A. Maclaren, Weekday Evening Addresses, p. 112.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
XVI
THE MESSIANIC PSALMS AND OTHERS
We commence this chapter by giving a classified list of the Messianic Psalms, as follows:
The Royal Psalms are:
Psa 110 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 72 ; Psa 45 ; Psa 89 ;
The Passion Psalms are:
Psa 22 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 69 ;
The Psalms of the Ideal Man are Psa 8 ; Psa 16 ; Psa 40 ;
The Missionary Psalms are:
Psa 47 ; Psa 65 ; Psa 68 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 100 ; Psa 117 .
The predictions before David of the coming Messiah are, (1) the seed of the woman; (2) the seed of Abraham; (3) the seed of Judah; (4) the seed of David.
The prophecies of history concerning the Messiah are, (1) a prophet like unto Moses; (2) a priest after the order of Melchizedek; (3) a sacrifice which embraces all the sacrificial offerings of the Old Testament; (4) direct references to him as King, as in 2Sa 7:8 ff.
The messianic offices as taught in the psalms are four, viz: (1) The Messiah is presented as Prophet, or Teacher (Psa 40:8 ); (2) as Sacrifice, or an Offering for sin (Psa 40:6 ff.; Heb 10:5 ff.) ; (3) he is presented as Priest (Psa 110:4 ); (4) he is presented as King (Psa 45 ).
The psalms most clearly presenting the Messiah in his various phases and functions are as follows: (1) as the ideal man, or Second Adam (8); (2) as Prophet (Psa 40 ); (3) as Sacrifice (Psa 22 ) ; (4) as King (Psa 45 ) ; (5) as Priest (Psa 110 ) ; (6) in his universal reign (Psa 72 ).
It will be noted that other psalms teach these facts also, but these most clearly set forth the offices as they relate to the Messiah.
The Messiah as a sacrifice is presented in general in Psa 40:6 . His sufferings as such are given in a specific and general way in Psa 22 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 69 . The events of his sufferings in particular are described, beginning with the betrayal of Judas, as follows:
1. Judas betrayed him (Mat 26:14 ) in fulfilment of Psa 41:9 .
2. At the Supper (Mat 26:24 ) Christ said, “The Son of man goeth as it is written of him,” referring to Psa 22 .
3. They sang after the Supper in fulfilment of Psa 22:22 .
4. Piercing his hands and feet, Psa 22:16 .
5. They cast lots for his vesture in fulfilment of Psa 22:18 .
6. Just before the ninth hour the chief priests reviled him (Mat 27:43 ) in fulfilment of Psa 22:8 .
7. At the ninth hour (Mat 27:46 ) he quoted Psa 22:1 .
8. Near his death (Joh 19:28 ) he said, in fulfilment of Psa 69:21 , “I thirst.”
9. At that time they gave him vinegar (Mat 27:48 ) in fulfilment of Psa 69:21 .
10. When he was found dead they did not break his bones (Joh 19:36 ) in fulfilment of Psa 34:20 .
11. He is represented as dead, buried, and raised in Psa 16:10 .
12. His suffering as a substitute is described in Psa 69:9 .
13. The result of his crucifixion to them who crucified him is given in Psa 69:22-23 . Compare Rom 11:9-10 .
The Penitential Psalms are Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 . The occasion of Psa 6 was the grief and penitence of David over Absalom; of Psa 32 was the blessedness of forgiveness after his sin with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah; Psa 38 , David’s reference to his sin with Bathsheba; Psa 51 , David’s penitence and prayer for forgiveness for this sin; Psa 102 , the penitence of the children of Israel on the eve of their return from captivity; Psalm 130, a general penitential psalm; Psa 143 , David’s penitence and prayer when pursued by Absalom.
The Pilgrim Psalms are Psalms 120-134. This section of the psalter is called the “Little Psalter.” These Psalms were collected in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, in troublous times. The author of the central psalm of this collection is Solomon, and he wrote it when he built his Temple. The Davidic Psalms in this collection are Psa 120 ; Psa 122 ; Psa 124 ; Psa 131 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 133 . The others were written during the building of the second Temple. They are called in the Septuagint “Songs of the Steps.”
There are four theories as to the meaning of the titles, “Songs of the Steps,” “Songs of Degrees,” or “Songs of Ascents,” viz:
1. The first theory is that the “Songs of the Steps” means the songs of the fifteen steps from the court of the women to the court of Israel, there being a song for each step.
2. The second theory is that advanced by Luther, which says that they were songs of a higher choir, elevated above, or in an elevated voice.
3. The third theory is that the thought in these psalms advances by degrees.
4. The fourth theory is that they are Pilgrim Psalms, or the songs that they sang while going up to the great feasts.
Certain scriptures give the true idea of these titles, viz: Exo 23:14-17 ; Exo 34:23-24 ; 1Sa 1:3 ; 1Ki 12:27-28 : Psa 122:1-4 ; and the proof of their singing as they went is found in Psa_42:4; 100; and Isa 30:29 . They went, singing these psalms, to the Feasts of the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Psa 121 was sung when just in sight of Jerusalem and Psa 122 was sung at the gate. Psa 128 is the description of a good man’s home and a parallel to this psalm in modern literature is Burns’s “Cotter’s Saturday Night.” The pious home makes the nation great.
Psa 133 is a psalm of fellowship. It is one of the finest expressions of the blessings that issue when God’s people dwell together in unity. The reference here is to the anointing of Aaron as high priest and the fragrance of the anointing oil which was used in these anointings. The dew of Hermon represents the blessing of God upon his people when they dwell together in such unity.
Now let us look at the Alphabetical Psalms. An alphabetical psalm is one in which the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are used alphabetically to commence each division. In Psalms 111-112, each clause so begins; in Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 145 ; each verse so begins; in Psa 37 each stanza of two verses so begins; in 119 each stanza of eight verses so begins, and each of the eight lines begins with the same letter. In Psa 25 ; 34 37 the order is not so strict; in Psa 9 and Psa 10 there are some traces of this alphabetical order.
David originated these alphabetical psalms and the most complete specimen is Psa 119 , which is an expansion of the latter part of Psa 19 .
A certain group of psalms is called the Hallelujah Psalms. They are so called because the word “Hallelujah” is used at the beginning, or at the ending, and sometimes at both the beginning and the ending. The Hallelujah Psalms are Psalm 111-113; 115-117; 146-150. Psa 117 is a doxology; and Psalms 146-150 were used as anthems. Psa 148 calls on all creation to praise God. Francis of Assisi wrote a hymn based on this psalm in which he called the sun his honorable brother and the cricket his sister. Psa 150 calls for all varieties of instruments. Psalms 113-118 are called the Egyptian Hallel. They were used at the Passover (Psalm 113-114), before the Supper and Psalm 115-118 were sung after the Supper. According to this, Jesus and his disciples sang Psalms 115-118 at the last Passover Supper. These psalms were sung also at the Feasts of Pentecost, Tabernacles, Dedication, and New Moon.
The name of God is delayed long in Psa 114 . Addison said, “That the surprise might be complete.” Then there are some special characteristics of Psa 115 , viz: (1) It was written against idols. Cf. Isa 44:9-20 ; (2) It is antiphonal, the congregation singing Psa 115:1-8 , the choir Psa 115:9-12 , the priests Psa 115:13-15 and the congregation again Psa 115:16-18 . The theme of Psa 116 is love, based on gratitude for a great deliverance, expressed in service. It is appropriate to read at the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and Psa 116:15 is especially appropriate for funeral services.
On some special historical occasions certain psalms were sung. Psa 46 was sung by the army of Gustavus Adolphus before the decisive battle of Leipzig, on September 17, 1631.Psa 68 was sung by Cromwell’s army on the occasion of the battle of Dunbar in Scotland.
Certain passages in the Psalms show that the psalm writers approved the offering of Mosaic animal sacrifices. For instance, Psa 118:27 ; Psa 141:2 seem to teach very clearly that they approved the Mosaic sacrifice. But other passages show that these inspired writers estimated spiritual sacrifices as more important and foresaw the abolition of the animal sacrifices. Such passages are Psa 50:7-15 ; Psa 4:5 ; Psa 27:6 ; Psa 40:6 ; Psa 51:16-17 . These scriptures show conclusively that the writers estimated spiritual sacrifices as more important than the Mosaic sacrifices.
QUESTIONS
1. What are the Royal Psalms?
2. What are the Passion Psalms?
3. What are the Psalms of the Ideal Man?
4. What are the Missionary Psalms?
5. What are the predictions before David of the coming Messiah?
6. What are the prophecies of history concerning the Messiah?
7. Give a regular order of thought concerning the messianic offices as taught in the psalms.
8. Which psalms most clearly present the Messiah as (1) the ideal man, or Second Adam, (2) which as Prophet, or Teacher, (3) which as the Sacrifice, (4) which as King, (5) which as Priest, (6) which his universal reign?
9. Concerning the suffering Messiah, or the Messiah as a sacrifice, state the words or facts, verified in the New Testament as fulfilment of prophecy in the psalms. Let the order of the citations follow the order of facts in Christ’s life.
10. Name the Penitential Psalms and show their occasion.
11. What are the Pilgrim Psalms?
12. What is this section of the Psalter called?
13. When and under what conditions were these psalms collected?
14. Who is the author of the central psalm of this collection?
15. What Davidic Psalms are in this collection?
16. When were the others written?
17. What are they called in the Septuagint?
18. What four theories as to the meaning of the titles, “Songs of the Steps,” “Songs of Degrees,” or “Songs of Ascents”?
19. What scriptures give the true idea of these titles?
20. Give proof of their singing as they went.
21. To what feasts did they go singing these Psalms?
22. What was the special use made of Psa 121 and Psa 122 ?
23. Which of these psalms is the description of a good man’s home and what parallel in modern literature?
24. Expound Psa 133 .
25. What is an alphabetical psalm, and what are the several kinds?
26. Who originated these Alphabetical Psalms?
27. What are the most complete specimen?
28. Of what is it an expansion?
29. Why is a certain group of psalms called the Hallelujah Psalms?
30. What are the Hallelujah Psalms?
31. Which of the Hallelujah Psalms was a doxology?
32. Which of these were used as anthems?
33. Which psalm calls on all creation to praise God?
34. Who wrote a hymn based on Psa 148 in which he called the sun his honorable brother and the cricket his sister?
35. Which of these psalms calls for all varieties of instruments?
36. What is the Egyptian Hallel?
37. What is their special use and how were they sung?
38. Then what hymns did Jesus and his disciples sing?
39. At what other feasts was this sung?
40. Why was the name of God delayed so long in Psa 114 ?
41. What are the characteristics of Psa 115 ?
42. What is the theme and special use of Psa 116 ?
43. State some special historical occasions on which certain psalms were sung. Give the psalm for each occasion.
44. Cite passages in the psalms showing that the psalm writers approved the offering of Mosaic animal sacrifices.
45. Cite other passages showing that these inspired writers estimated spiritual sacrifices as more important than the Mosaic sacrifices.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
PSALMS
XI
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:
1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.
2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.
3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.
4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.
5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.
6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.
7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.
At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.
The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.
The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.
They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”
The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:
1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.
2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.
3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .
In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.
It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.
There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.
The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.
The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.
The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:
Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)
Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)
Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)
Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)
Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)
They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.
There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:
Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.
Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:
1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.
2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.
3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.
4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.
5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.
All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:
In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).
In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).
In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).
In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).
The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .
QUESTIONS
1. What books are commended on the Psalms?
2. What is a psalm?
3. What is the Psalter?
4. What is the range of time in composition?
5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?
6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?
7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?
8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.
9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?
10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?
11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?
12. How many psalms in our collection?
13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?
14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?
15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?
16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?
17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?
18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?
19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?
20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?
21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?
22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?
23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?
24. How many of the psalms have no titles?
25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?
26. How do later Jews supply these titles?
27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?
XII
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)
The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:
1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).
2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).
3. The nature, or character, of the poem:
(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).
(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).
4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).
5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).
6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).
7. The kind of musical instrument:
(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).
(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).
(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).
8. A special choir:
(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).
(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).
(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).
9. The keynote, or tune:
(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).
(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).
(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).
(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).
(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).
(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.
(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.
(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.
10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).
11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)
12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).
The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.
The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.
David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:
1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.
2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.
3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.
4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.
5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:
1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.
2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.
3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.
4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.
5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.
6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.
The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.
Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.
Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:
I. By books
1. Psalms 1-41 (41)
2. Psalms 42-72 (31)
3. Psalms 73-89 (17)
4. Psalms 90-106 (17)
5. Psalms 107-150 (44)
II. According to date and authorship
1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )
2. Psalms of David:
(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).
(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).
(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).
3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).
4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).
5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).
6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )
7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )
8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)
III. By groups
1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.
2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )
3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )
5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”
IV. Doctrines of the Psalms
1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.
2. The covenant, the basis of worship.
3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.
4. The pardon of sin and justification.
5. The Messiah.
6. The future life, pro and con.
7. The imprecations.
8. Other doctrines.
V. The New Testament use of the Psalms
1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.
2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.
We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:
1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )
2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )
3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )
4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )
5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )
6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )
7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )
8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )
9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )
The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.
There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.
It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.
The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.
Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:
1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.
2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.
3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.
The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.
2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?
3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?
4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?
5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.
6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?
7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?
8. What other authors are named in the titles?
9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?
10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.
11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?
12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.
13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?
14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?
15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?
16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?
17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.
18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?
19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?
20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?
XVII
THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS
A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.
Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.
The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:
1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.
2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.
3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.
In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).
This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.
It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:
1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.
2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.
We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.
1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.
The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.
The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).
But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .
Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).
This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.
2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:
(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).
(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .
(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”
(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).
What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!
3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.
(1) His divinity,
(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;
(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .
(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .
(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .
(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .
(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .
(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.
(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .
4. His offices.
(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).
(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).
(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).
(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).
(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).
5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:
(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .
(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.
(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .
(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).
And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).
Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).
These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .
(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).
(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .
(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).
(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).
(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).
(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).
(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).
The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).
The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).
The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).
His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).
In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).
His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).
Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).
With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).
We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. What is a good text for this chapter?
2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?
3. What is the last division called and why?
4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?
5. To what three things is the purpose limited?
6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?
7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?
8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?
9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?
10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?
11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.
12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?
13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?
14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?
15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.
16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.
17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.
18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Psa 51:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
A Psalm of David ] Who was not ashamed to do open penance here in a white sheet, as it were; so did Theodosius the emperor, at the reprehension of Ambrose, after the slaughter at Thessalonica; he spent eight months, saith Theodoret, in weeping and lamentation; he fell down on his face in the place of the penitents, and said, My soul is glued to the earth, &c. Henry IV (then king of Navarre only, afterwards of France also), having abused the daughter of a gentleman in Rochel, by whom he had a son, was persuaded by Monsieur Du-Plessis to make a public acknowledgment of his fault in the church, which also he did before all the nobility of his army. This counsel being thought by some to be too rigorous, Du-Plessis made this answer, That as a man could not be too courageous before men, so he could not be too humble in the presence of God (Life of Phil. de Morn., by Mr Clark).
When Nathan the prophet came unto him
After he had gone in to Bathsheba
Ver. 1. Have mercy upon me, O God ] It was wont to be, O my God, but David had now sinned away his assurance, wiped off his comfortables; he dares not plead propriety in God, nor relation to him, as having forfeited both. At another time, when he had greatly offended God by numbering the people, God counted him but plain David, “Go and say to David,” 2Sa 24:12 , whereas before, when he purposed to build God a temple, then it was, “Go tell my servant David,” 2Sa 7:5 . Sin doth much impair and weaken our assurance of God’s favour; like as a drop of water falling on a burning candle dimmeth the light thereof. The course that David taketh for recovery of this last evil is confession of sin, and hearty prayer for pardoning and purging grace. In the courts of men it is safest (saith Quintilian) to plead Non feci, Not guilty; not so here, but Ego feci, miserere miserrimi peccatoris, misericors Deus. Guilty, Lord, have mercy, &c.
Per miserere mei tollitur ira Dei.
According to the multitude of thy tender mercies ] They are a multitude of them, and David needeth them all, for the pardon of his many and mighty sins; that where sin had abounded grace might superabound, it may have a superpleonasm, 1Ti 1:14 .
Blot out my transgressions
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
This again is “To the chief musician, a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he went unto Bathsheba.” Blood-guilt is also confessed.
Plainly these two psalms are closely bound together, though the first is a public and general summons, the second a private and personal confession; which at the end the godly remnant will take up as their own in view of corruption and the blood-shedding of the Messiah, the great transgression. Real godliness is requisite, not sacrifice, in the former; in the latter, not sacrifice but genuine repentance. Ceremonial observances are in vain, when. God judges us even on the earth, yet more for eternity. Boasting of the law serves only the more to condemn the sinner.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Psalms
DAVID’S CRY FOR PARDON
Psa 51:1 – Psa 51:2
A whole year had elapsed between David’s crime and David’s penitence. It had been a year of guilty satisfaction not worth the having; of sullen hardening of heart against God and all His appeals. The thirty-second Psalm tells us how happy David had been during that twelvemonth, of which he says, ‘My bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night Thy hand was heavy on me.’ Then came Nathan with his apologue, and with that dark threatening that ‘the sword should never depart from his house,’ the fulfilment of which became a well-head of sorrow to the king for the rest of his days, and gave a yet deeper poignancy of anguish to the crime of his spoiled favourite Absalom. The stern words had their effect. The frost that had bound his soul melted all away, and he confessed his sin, and was forgiven then and there. ‘I have sinned against the Lord’ is the confession as recorded in the historical books; and, says Nathan, ‘The Lord hath made to pass from thee the iniquity of thy sin.’ Immediately, as would appear from the narrative, that very same day, the child of Bathsheba and David was smitten with fatal disease, and died in a week. And it is after all these events-the threatening, the penitence, the pardon, the punishment-that he comes to God, who had so freely forgiven, and likewise so sorely smitten him, and wails out these prayers: ‘Blot out my transgressions, wash me from mine iniquity, cleanse me from my sin.’
One almost shrinks from taking as the text of a sermon words like these, in which a broken and contrite spirit groans for deliverance, and which are, besides, hallowed by the thought of the thousands who have since found them the best expression of their sacredest emotions. But I would fain try not to lose the feeling that breathes through the words, while seeking for the thoughts which are in them, and hope that the light which they throw upon the solemn subjects of guilt and forgiveness may not be for any of us a mere cold light.
I. Looking then at this triad of petitions, they teach us first how David thought of his sin.
And besides that, though the three clauses do express the same general idea, they express it under various modifications, and must be all taken together before we get the whole of the Psalmist’s thought of sin.
Notice again that he speaks of his evil as ‘transgressions’ and as ‘sin,’ first using the plural and then the singular. He regards it first as being broken up into a multitude of isolated acts, and then as being all gathered together into one knot, as it were, so that it is one thing. In one aspect it is ‘my transgressions’-’that thing that I did about Uriah, that thing that I did about Bathsheba, those other things that these dragged after them.’ One by one the acts of wrongdoing pass before him. But he does not stop there. They are not merely a number of deeds, but they have, deep down below, a common root from which they all came-a centre in which they all inhere. And so he says, not only ‘Blot out my transgressions ,’ but ‘Wash me from mine iniquity .’ He does not merely generalise, but he sees and he feels what you and I have to feel, if we judge rightly of our evil actions, that we cannot take them only in their plurality as so many separate deeds, but that we must recognise them as coming from a common source, and we must lament before God not only our ‘sins’ but our ‘sin’-not only the outward acts of transgression, but that alienation of heart from which they all come; not only sin in its manifold manifestations as it comes out in the life, but in its inward roots as it coils round our hearts. You are not to confess acts alone, but let your contrition embrace the principle from which they come.
Further, in all the petitions we see that the idea of his own single responsibility for the whole thing is uppermost in David’s mind. It is my transgression, it is mine iniquity, and my sin. He has not learned to say with Adam of old, and with some so-called wise thinkers to-day: ‘I was tempted, and I could not help it.’ He does not talk about ‘circumstances,’ and say that they share the blame with him. He takes it all to himself. ‘It was I did it. True, I was tempted, but it was my soul that made the occasion a temptation. True, the circumstances led me astray, but they would not have led me astray if I had been right, and where as well as what I ought to be.’ It is a solemn moment when that thought first rises in its revealing power to throw light into the dark places of our souls. But it is likewise a blessed moment, and without it we are scarcely aware of ourselves. Conscience quickens consciousness. The sense of transgression is the first thing that gives to many a man the full sense of his own individuality. There is nothing that makes us feel how awful and incommunicable is that mysterious personality by which every one of us lives alone after all companionship, so much as the contemplation of our relations to God’s law. ‘Every man shall bear his own burden.’ ‘Circumstances,’ yes; ‘bodily organisation,’ yes; ‘temperament,’ yes; ‘the maxims of society,’ ‘the conventionalities of the time,’ yes,-all these things have something to do with shaping our single deeds and with influencing our character; but after we have made all allowances for these influences which affect me , let us ask the philosophers who bring them forward as diminishing or perhaps annihilating responsibility, ‘And what about that me which these things influence?’ After all, let me remember that the deed is mine , and that every one of us shall, as Paul puts it, give account of himself unto God.
Passing from that, let me point for one moment to another set of ideas that are involved in these petitions. The three words which the Psalmist employs for sin give prominence to different aspects of it. ‘Transgression’ is not the same as ‘iniquity,’ and ‘iniquity’ is not the same as ‘sin.’ They are not aimless, useless synonyms, but they have each a separate thought in them. The word rendered ‘transgression’ literally means rebellion, a breaking away from and setting oneself against lawful authority. That translated ‘iniquity’ literally means that which is twisted, bent. The word in the original for ‘sin’ literally means missing a mark, an aim. And this threefold view of sin is no discovery of David’s, but is the lesson which the whole Old Testament system had laboured to print deep on the national consciousness. That lesson, taught by law and ceremonial, by denunciation and remonstrance, by chastisement and deliverance, the penitent king has learned. To all men’s wrongdoings these descriptions apply, but most of all to his. Sin is ever, and his sin especially is, rebellion, the deflection of the life from the straight line which God’s law draws so clearly and firmly, and hence a missing the aim.
Think how profound and living is the consciousness of sin which lies in calling it rebellion . It is not merely, then, that we go against some abstract propriety, or break some impersonal law of nature when we do wrong, but that we rebel against a rightful Sovereign. In a special sense this was true of the Jew, whose nation stood under the government of a divine king, so that sin was treason, and breaches of the law acts of rebellion against God. But it is as true of us all. Our theory of morals will be miserably defective, and our practice will be still more defective, unless we have learned that morality is but the garment of religion, that the definition of virtue is obedience to God, and that the true sin in sin is not the yielding to impulses that belong to our nature, but the assertion in the act of yielding, of our independence of God and of our opposition to His will. And all this has application to David’s sin. He was God’s viceroy and representative, and he sets to his people the example of revolt, and lifts the standard of rebellion. It is as if the ruler of a province declared war against the central authority of which he was the creature, and used against it the very magazines and weapons with which it had intrusted him. He had rebelled, and in an eminent degree, as Nathan said to him, given to the enemies of God occasion to blaspheme.
Not less profound and suggestive is that other name for sin, that which is twisted, or bent, mine ‘iniquity.’ It is the same metaphor which lies in our own word ‘wrong,’ that which is wrung or warped from the straight line of right. To that line, drawn by God’s law, our lives should run parallel, bending neither to the right hand nor to the left. But instead of the firm directness of such a line, our lives show wavering deformity, and are like the tremulous strokes in a child’s copy-book. David had the pattern before him, and by its side his unsteady purpose, his passionate lust, had traced this wretched scrawl. The path on which he should have trodden was a straight course to God, unbending like one of these conquering Roman roads, that will turn aside for neither mountain nor ravine, nor stream nor bog. If it had been thus straight, it would have reached its goal. Journeying on that way of holiness, he would have found, and we shall find, that on it no ravenous beast shall meet us, but with songs and everlasting joy upon their lips the happy pilgrims draw ever nearer to God, obtaining joy and gladness in all the march, until at last ‘sorrow and sighing shall flee away.’ But instead of this he had made for himself a crooked path, and had lost his road and his peace in the mazes of wandering ways. ‘The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to come to the city.’
Another very solemn and terrible thought of what sin is, lies in that final word for it, which means ‘missing an aim.’ How strikingly that puts a truth which siren voices are constantly trying to sing us out of believing! Every sin is a blunder as well as a crime. And that for two reasons, because, first, God has made us for Himself, and to take anything besides for our life’s end or our heart’s portion is to divert ourselves from our true destiny; and because, second, that being so, every attempt to win satisfaction or delight by such a course is and must be a failure. Sin misses the aim if we think of our proper destination. Sin misses its own aim of happiness. A man never gets what he hoped for by doing wrong, or, if he seem to do so, he gets something more that spoils it all. He pursues after the fleeing form that seems so fair, and when he reaches her side, and lifts her veil, eager to embrace the tempter, a hideous skeleton grins and gibbers at him. The siren voices sing to you from the smiling island, and their white arms and golden harps and the flowery grass draw you from the wet boat and the weary oar; but when a man lands he sees the fair form end in a slimy fish, and she slays him and gnaws his bones. ‘He knows not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell.’ Yes! every sin is a mistake, and the epitaph for the sinner is ‘Thou fool!’
II. These petitions also show us, in the second place, How David thinks of forgiveness.
The two things run into each other in his prayer, as they do, thank God! in our own experience, the one being inseparable, in fact, from the other. It is absolute deliverance from the power of sin, in all forms of that power, whether as guilt or as habit, for which he cries so piteously; and his accumulative petitions are so exhaustive, not because he is coldly examining his sin, but because he is intensely feeling the manifold burden of his great evil.
That first petition conceives of the divine dealing with sin as being the erasure of a writing, perhaps of an indictment. There is a special significance in the use of the word here, because it is also employed in the description of the Levitical ceremonial of the ordeal, where a curse was written on a scroll and blotted out by the priest. But apart from that the metaphor is a natural and suggestive one. Our sin stands written against us. The long gloomy indictment has been penned by our own hands. Our past is a blurred manuscript, full of false things and bad things. We have to spread the writing before God, and ask Him to remove the stained characters from its surface, that once was fair and unsoiled.
Ah, brethren! some people tell us that the past is irrevocable, that the thing once done can never be undone, that the life’s diary written by our own hands can never be cancelled. The melancholy theory of some thinkers and teachers is summed up in the words, infinitely sad and despairing when so used, ‘What I have written I have written.’ Thank God! we know better than that. We know who blots out the handwriting ‘that is against us, nailing it to His Cross.’ We know that of God’s great mercy our future may ‘copy fair our past,’ and the past may be all obliterated and removed. And as sometimes you will find in an old monkish library the fair vellum that once bore lascivious stories of ancient heathens and pagan deities turned into the manuscript in which a saint has penned his Contemplations, an Augustine his Confessions, or a Jerome his Translations, so our souls may become palimpsests. The old wicked heathen characters that we have traced there may be blotted out, and covered over by the writing of that divine Spirit who has said, ‘I will put My laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts.’ As you run your pen through the finished pages of your last year’s diaries, as you seal them up and pack them away, and begin a new page in a clean book on the first of January, so it is possible for every one of us to do with our lives. Notwithstanding all the influence of habit, notwithstanding all the obstinacy of long-indulged modes of thought and action, notwithstanding all the depressing effect of frequent attempts and frequent failures, we may break ourselves off from all that is sinful in our past lives, and begin afresh, saying, ‘God helping me! I will write another sort of biography for myself for the days that are to come.’
We cannot erase these sad records from our past. The ink is indelible; and besides all that we have visibly written in these terrible autobiographies of ours, there is much that has sunk into the page, there is many a ‘secret fault,’ the record of which will need the fire of that last day to make it legible, Alas for those who learn the black story of their own lives for the first time then! Learn it now, my brother! and learn likewise that Christ can wipe it all clean off the page, clean out of your nature, clean out of God’s book. Cry to Him, with the Psalmist, ‘Blot out my transgressions!’ and He will calm and bless you with the ancient answer, ‘I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins.’
Then there is another idea in the second of these prayers for forgiveness: ‘Wash me throughly from mine iniquity.’ That phrase does not need any explanation, except that the word expresses the antique way of cleansing garments by treading and beating. David, then, here uses the familiar symbol of a robe, to express the ‘habit’ of the soul, or, as we say, the character. That robe is all splashed and stained. He cries to God to make it a robe of righteousness and a garment of purity.
And mark that he thinks the method by which this will be accomplished is a protracted and probably a painful one. He is not praying for a mere declaration of pardon, he is not asking only for the one complete, instantaneous act of forgiveness, but he is asking for a process of purifying which will be long and hard. ‘I am ready,’ says he, in effect, ‘to submit to any sort of discipline, if only I may be clean. Wash me, beat me, tread me down, hammer me with mallets, dash me against stones, rub me with smarting soap and caustic nitre-do anything, anything with me, if only those foul spots melt away from the texture of my soul!’ A solemn prayer, my brethren! if we pray it aright, which will be answered by many a sharp application of God’s Spirit, by many a sorrow, by much very painful work, both within our own souls and in our outward lives, but which will be fulfilled at last in our being clothed like our Lord, in garments which shine as the light.
We know, dear brethren! who has said, ‘I counsel thee to buy of Me white raiment, that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear.’ And we know well who were the great company before the throne of God, that had ‘washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’ ‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’ ‘ Wash me throughly from mine iniquity.’
The deliverance from sin is still further expressed by that third supplication, ‘Cleanse me from my sin.’ That is the technical word for the priestly act of declaring ceremonial cleanness-the cessation of ceremonial pollution, and for the other priestly act of making, as well as declaring, clean from the stains of leprosy. And with allusion to both of these uses, the Psalmist employs it here. That is to say, he thinks of his guilt not only as a blotted past record which he has written, not only as a garment spotted by the flesh which his spirit wears, but he thinks of it too as inhering in himself, as a leprosy and disease of his own personal nature. He thinks of it as being, like that, incurable, fatal, twin sister to and precursor of death; and he thinks of it as capable of being cleansed only by a sacerdotal act, only by the great High Priest and by His finger being laid upon it. And we know who it was that-when the leper, whom no man in Israel was allowed to touch on pain of uncleanness, came to His feet-put out His hand in triumphant consciousness of power, and touched him, and said, ‘I will ! be thou clean.’ Let this be thy prayer, ‘Cleanse me from my sin’; and Christ will answer, ‘Thy leprosy hath departed from thee.’
III. These petitions likewise show us whence the Psalmist draws his confidence for such a prayer.
God’s own revealed character, His faithfulness and persistency, notwithstanding all our sins, in that mode of dealing with men which has blessed all generations with His tender mercies-these were David’s pleas. And for us who have the perfect love of God perfectly expressed in His Son, that same plea is incalculably strengthened, for we can say, ‘According to Thy tender mercy in Thy dear Son, for the sake of Christ, blot out my transgressions.’ Is the depth of our desire, and is the firmness of our confidence, proportioned to the increased clearness of our knowledge of the love of our God? Does the Cross of Christ lead us to as trustful a penitence as David had, to whom meditation on God’s providences and the shadows of the ancient covenant were chiefest teachers of the multitude of His tender mercies?
Remember further that a comparison of the narrative in the historical books seems to show, as I said, that this psalm followed Nathan’s declaration of the divine forgiveness, and that therefore these petitions of our text are the echo and response to that declaration.
Thus we see that the revelation of God’s love precedes, and is the cause of, the truest penitence; that our prayer for forgiveness is properly the appropriating, or the effort to appropriate, the divine promise of forgiveness; and that the assurance of pardon, so far from making a man think lightly of his sin, is the thing that drives it home to his conscience, and first of all teaches him what it really is. As long as you are tortured with thoughts of a possible hell because of guilt, as long as you are troubled by the contemplation of consequences affecting your happiness as ensuing upon your wrongdoing, so long there is a foreign and disturbing element in even your deepest and truest penitence. But when you know that God has forgiven-when you come to see the ‘multitude of Thy tender mercies,’ when the fear of punishment has passed out of your apprehension, then you are left with a heart at leisure from dread, to look the fact and not the consequences in the face, and to think of the moral nature, and not of the personal results, of your sin. And so one of the old prophets, with profound truth, says, ‘Thou shalt be ashamed and confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy sin, when I am pacified towards thee for all thou hast done.’
Dear friends! the wheels of God’s great mill may grind us small, without our coming to know or to hate our sin. About His chastisements, about the revelation of His wrath, that old saying is true to a great extent: ‘If you bray a fool in a mortar, his folly will not depart from him.’ You may smite a man down, crush him, make his bones to creep with the preaching of vengeance and of hell, and the result of it will often be, if it be anything at all, what it was in the case of that poor wretched Judas, who, because he only saw wrath, flung himself into despair, and was lost, not because he had betrayed Christ, but because he believed that there was no forgiveness for the man that had betrayed.
But Love comes, and ‘Love is Lord of all.’ God’s assurance, ‘I have forgiven,’ the assurance that we do not need to plead with Him, to bribe Him, to buy pardon by tears and amendment, but that it is already provided for us-the blessed vision of an all-mighty love treasured in a dying Saviour, the proclamation ‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them’-Oh! these are the powers that break, or rather that melt, our hearts; these are the keen weapons that wound to heal our hearts; these are the teachers that teach a ‘godly sorrow that needeth not to be repented of.’ Think of all the patient, pitying mercy of our Father, with which He has lingered about our lives, and softly knocked at the door of our hearts! Think of that unspeakable gift in which are wrapped up all His tender mercies-the gift of Christ who died for us all! Let it smite upon your heart with a rebuke mightier than all the thunders of law or terrors of judgment. Let it unveil for you not only the depths of the love of God, but the darkness of your own selfish rebellion from Him. Measure your crooked lives by the perfect rightness of Christ’s. Learn how you have missed the aim which He reached, who could say, ‘I delight to do Thy will, O my God!’ And let that same infinite love that teaches sin announce frank forgiveness and prophesy perfect purity. Then, with heart fixed upon Christ’s Cross, let your cry for pardon be the echo of the most sure promise of pardon which sounds from His dying lips; and as you gaze on Him who died that we might be freed from all iniquity, ask Him to blot out your transgressions, to wash you throughly from your iniquity, and to cleanse you from your sins. Ask, for you cannot ask in vain; ask earnestly, for you need it sorely; ask confidently, for He has promised before you ask; but ask, for unless you do, you will not receive. Ask, and the answer is sent already-’The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 51:1-4
1Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
2Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
And cleanse me from my sin.
3For I know my transgressions,
And my sin is ever before me.
4Against You, You only, I have sinned
And done what is evil in Your sight,
So that You are justified when You speak
And blameless when You judge.
Psa 51:1-2 Notice the literary flow of this strophe, which deals with a believer’s confession of known sin. There are four (possibly five, Qere) imperatives of request.
1. be gracious to me BDB 335, KB 334, Qal imperative; this is a recurrent prayer request (cf. Psa 4:1; Psa 6:2; Psa 9:13; Psa 25:16; Psa 26:11; Psa 27:7; Psa 30:10; Psa 31:9; Psa 41:4; Psa 41:10; Psa 56:1; Psa 57:1 [twice] etc.) to a gracious God (BDB 337, cf. Psa 86:15; Psa 103:8; Psa 111:4; Psa 116:5; Psa 145:8; see SPECIAL TOPIC: CHARACTERISTICS OF ISRAEL’S GOD )
a. according to Your lovingkindness (BDB 338, see SPECIAL TOPIC: LOVINGKINDNESS (HESED)
b. according to the greatness of Your compassion (i.e., construct BDB 913 and BDB 933, cf. Psa 25:6; Psa 69:16; Psa 119:156; Psa 145:9)
2. blot out my transgressions BDB 562, KB 567, Qal imperative, cf. Psa 51:9, usually this word is used of destroying sinners (cf. Psa 9:5; Psa 69:28; Psa 109:13) from life and the book of life (cf. Exo 32:32-33; see SPECIAL TOPIC: THE TWO BOOKS OF GOD )
This concept of experienced forgiveness and restoration to divine fellowship is also found in the NT, esp. Heb 9:14; 1Jn 1:7; 1Jn 1:9.
The same three nouns for sin also are found in Exo 34:7. Interestingly the verb blot out is found in Exo 32:32-33. Maybe the psalmist had the book of Exodus in mind.
The verb is also found in Isa 43:25; Isa 44:22. It asserts the great truth that when God forgives, God forgetsnote Isa 1:18; Isa 38:17; Isa 43:25; Isa 44:22; Mic 7:19. Several different metaphors are used but all suggest out of sight, out of mind.
In the ANE ink was acidic. When one wrote on a papyrus page the ink bit into the plant material and could not be erased. To erase something was a miracle of God, just like washing a dyed cloth white (cf. Isa 1:18) was also impossible (i.e., no bleach available). Forgiveness is a miracle of God!
3. wash me BDB 460, KB 459, Piel imperative, only here in the Psalms and Piel imperfect in Psa 51:7; used predominately in Leviticus for ritual purification
4. thoroughly (MT has a Hiphil infinitive absolute, but the Masoretic Jewish scholars suggested a changes to another imperative) BDB 915, KB 1176, Hiphil imperative
5. cleanse me BDB 372, KB 369, Piel imperative, only here in the Psalms, and Qal imperfect in Psa 51:7; used predominately in Leviticus for something pronounced clean.
Psa 51:1 transgressions There are several terms for human rebellion against God found in this strophe.
1. transgression, Psa 51:1; Psa 51:3 BDB 833, cf. Isa 59:12-13; Amo 5:12; Mic 1:5 (twice),13; its basic meaning is to revolt or rebel against God
2. iniquity, Psa 51:2; Psa 51:5; Psa 51:9 BDB 730, cf. Psa 32:5 (thrice), used often in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel
3. sin, Psa 51:2; Psa 51:9; Psa 51:13 BDB 308, cf Psa 32:5 (twice), its basic meaning is to miss; the basic root is often used of a sin offering
4. evil, Psa 51:4 BDB 948 II, very common word, cf. Psa 5:4; Psa 7:4; Psa 7:9; Psa 10:6; Psa 10:15; Psa 23:4; Psa 34:13-14; Psa 34:16; Psa 36:4; Psa 37:27; Psa 41:5; Psa 49:5; Psa 52:3; Psa 54:5, etc.
One can tell how important a concept is to a culture/language by how many terms are used to communicate or clarify the concept. Hebrew has many words for sin/rebellion against God.
sin This feminine noun (BDB 308) is found in Psa 51:2-3; Psa 51:9; Psa 51:13. The masculine noun (BDB 307) is in Psa 51:5; Psa 51:9. The verb (BDB 306, KB 305) is in Psa 51:4; Psa 51:7.
Psa 51:3-4 These verses reveal the inner consequences of sin and its terrible disruption of fellowship with God.
1. I know my transgressions They are not sins of ignorance but of open rebellion.
2. My sin is ever before me Guilt cannot be relieved or minimized. It is a constant reminder of the broken fellowship and its consequences.
3. Against You, You only, I have sinned This is a theological statement (cf. Gen 20:6; 2Sa 12:13; Psa 41:4). Sin is known only when human action is put up against a divine command (cf. Rom 3:20; Rom 3:25; Rom 4:15; Rom 5:13; Rom 5:20; Act 17:30).
This is not to depreciate the pain of victims but to note that ultimately all sin is against the one and only Holy God!
Psa 51:4 -d The TEV catches the meaning of these two lines of poetry.
So you are right in judging me; you are justified in condemning me.
This is quoted by Paul from the LXX in Rom 3:4. It is introduced by let God be found true, though every man be found a liar.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Title. A Psalm. Hebrew. mizmor. See App-65.
when Nathan, &c. See 2Sa 11:2; 2Sa 12:1. David’s utterance when he lay all night upon the earth as a penitent (2Sa 12:16). Compare his utterance when he “sat before the LORD “as a worshipper (2Sa 7:18-29), and when he “stood upon his feet” as a servant (1Ch 28:2-10).
Have mercy upon me = Be gracious or favourable unto me.
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
lovingkindness: or, grace.
blot out = erase, as a debt from a book (Exo 32:32, Exo 32:33. Num 5:23. Num 69:28), or wipe out so as to remove (2Ki 21:13. Isa 44:22).
transgressions. Hebrew. pasha’. App-44.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Shall we turn now in our Bibles to Psa 51:1-19 .
David is surely one of the most outstanding characters of the Old Testament. He was greatly hated and greatly loved. He had the capacity to inspire tremendous emotions in people, on both ends of the spectrum. He is always talking about his enemies that are trying to do him in. But yet, there was a great number of people who really followed David with a great devotion. David was called a man after God’s own heart. And this appellation was given to David, not because he was sinless, but because his heart was always open towards God. Pliable. God could work with David. God could deal with him. When David was wrong, God could deal with him. Inasmuch as none of us are sinless too, it is important that God is able to deal with us when we are in our faults, when we are in our sins, that we be open to the dealings of God.
The fifty-first psalm has as its background God’s dealing with David concerning his sin. For David, one day while on his roof, which over there they have flat roofs, and they have their gardens and couches and hammocks and all out on their roofs. As he was walking on his rooftop, he spied over on a neighboring roof a beautiful lady bathing. And the lust of David’s flesh got the better of him. He sent a message to her to come on over. She responded, and as the result of their encounter, she became pregnant. David tried to cover it by having her husband come home from the service for a while. But he did not cooperate in that he did not go home to be with his wife during his leave of absence from active duty. So David compounded his sin of adultery by ordering Joab to put the fellow in the place of jeopardy in the battle where he would be sure to be killed. And as a result, he was put to death by the enemy.
And at this time, Nathan the prophet came to David with a parable in which David was the character, only in a different setting. “David, there is a man in your kingdom, very wealthy, had all kinds of sheep and goods, possessions, servants. And next door to him there lived a very poor man who had only one lamb. He loved it like his own daughter. It ate at his own table. The rich man had company come. He ordered his servants to by force go to his neighbor’s house and take away the lamb by force that they might kill it and feed it to his company.” David became angry, and he said to Nathan, “That man shall surely be put to death.” And Nathan pointed his finger at David and said, “David, you are the man.”
The application was very clear. David had many wives, concubines, all that a person could desire. Yet, he took away the wife, the only wife of his neighbor. And upon hearing this, upon the sense of his own guilt, David wrote this fifty-first psalm in which he cries out for mercy. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Justice is getting what you deserve. He’s got it coming, that’s justice. He has it coming; he doesn’t get it, that’s mercy. And David is crying out now to God for mercy.
Have mercy upon me, O God ( Psa 51:1 ),
Not according to the fact that I am a good guy and I deserve it, but
according to your loving-kindness: according [to the abundance or] to the multitudes of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions ( Psa 51:1 ).
David’s prayer for forgiveness, casting himself upon the mercy of God. The Bible teaches us much about God’s mercy. He declares that He is a merciful God; He will abundantly pardon. “According to the multitude of Thy tender mercies,” David said, “blot out my transgressions.”
Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me ( Psa 51:2-3 ).
Now David was trying to hide his guilt, but yet, you can’t hide it from yourself. And David speaks about his sin being, “ever before me. I am ever conscious of my guilt.” You can’t run from guilt, you can’t hide from guilt. It is there.
David said, “I acknowledge my transgressions.” Now you are on the road back. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” ( 1Jn 1:9 ). But I have to be honest with God. I have to confess my sin. I have to acknowledge my transgression if God is going to be able to deal with me. As long as I am trying to hide my sin, as long as I am trying to justify myself, and this is one of the things that we are constantly having to deal with in our own lives, is that endeavor to justify our actions. But there isn’t forgiveness in justifying your actions. The forgiveness comes when you confess your transgressions. “I acknowledge my transgressions.” Good. Now God can deal with it. But as long as you are trying to hide it, cover it, excuse it, God can’t deal with it. So important that we be totally open and honest with God, in order that He might deal with the issues of our lives.
Then David said,
Against thee, and thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight ( Psa 51:4 ):
God is the one who has established the law. Sin is against the holy law of God, the holy nature of God. Now, if we would look at this, it would seem to us that he had sinned against Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba. It would even seem that he sinned against Bathsheba, inviting her to this kind of a relationship. But David declares, “Against Thee, and Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight.”
Now, if David had been conscious of God and of the fact that God sees, if he had been more conscious of the presence of God, it could very well be that he never would have gotten into this. I think that one of the real problems that we have is our lack of the sense of God’s presence with us. We forget that He’s right there. Now, we oftentimes do things that suddenly we find that someone was there and watching, and we get so embarrassed because we thought that nobody knew us, or that nobody was watching. And when we suddenly find someone there.
I’ve had occasions in the past to have to make calls on the homes. And sometimes as I would be walking up to the door, I would hear all kinds of screaming and yelling in the house. And then, you know, you ring the doorbell and you hear a flurry of motion and all, and pretty soon the door is open and they see you and they just, you know. There have been times that I never rung the doorbell; I’ve just gone. I was too embarrassed. I didn’t want to embarrass them. And you know, they say, “Oh, you know, we didn’t know it was you.” And start into all that kind of stuff. But you see, who am I? Man, I know what it is to yell and get angry. Who am I? What we need to realize is that God is there. “In Him we live and move and have our being,” Paul said. We need to become more conscious of the fact that God is with us.
“Against Thee, and Thee only have I done this sin and this evil in Thy sight.” God was watching. God knew all about it. David thought that he had cleverly covered his guilt. After all, Uriah has been killed in battle, so who is going to object to David taking a pretty young widow into his harem? After all, her husband was killed out fighting in one of David’s wars. And David thought he had covered his tracks, but God saw. And when the prophet came to him and said, “David, you are the man,” David realized that he had not hid anything from God. “I have done this evil in Your sight.”
[in order] that you might be justified when you speak, and be clear when you judge ( Psa 51:4 ).
Now David confesses, actually, the nature of sin.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden parts thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean ( Psa 51:5-7 ):
The hyssop was a little shrub that grows over there in the Holy Land and in Egypt, in those areas. And it was the little bush that they used to sprinkle the blood. When in Egypt they were to sprinkle the blood upon the lentils of the doorposts of the house, they used the hyssop bush in the sprinkling of the blood. And so, because it was the little bush that was used to sprinkle the blood, he said, “Purge me with hyssop.” That would be referring to the blood of the sacrifice. “And I shall be clean.”
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow ( Psa 51:7 ).
David’s concept of God’s total and complete forgiveness. And it is important that we also have that same concept of God’s total and complete forgiveness. God said in Isaiah, “Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red as crimson, they shall be as white as wool” ( Isa 1:18 ). “Wash me, and I shall be as white as snow.”
You know, there is nothing in all the world that can remove your guilt complex like just confessing to God and receiving the cleansing and the forgiveness from Him. Guilt complex is a weird thing. The guilt complex does create a subconscious desire for punishment. That subconscious desire for punishment is manifested in neurotic behavior patterns. The neurotic behavior patterns are designed to bring punishment to you. You start doing weird things. People start saying, “What is wrong with you? Why are you doing that? That is weird, man!” Well, I don’t know why I am doing it, because it is a subconscious thing. I am feeling guilty over something, and I need to be punished. So I am going now into an abnormal behavior that is going to bring disapproval and punishment upon me. And I continue with this neurotic behavior pattern until someone really tells me what a nut I am, how weird, and how I belong ostracized from society or something. And I feel great because they have punished me and I feel the relief of my guilt. But there is nothing in the world like coming to God and letting Him wash you and He takes away completely that guilt complex that has been plaguing you.
David said,
Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O Lord ( Psa 51:8-10 );
And here is the problem. David is getting right down to the issue, “O God, create a clean heart within me.”
renew a right spirit within me ( Psa 51:10 ).
How easy it is when we feel guilty to have a wrong spirit, a wrong attitude towards the saints of God, and towards God Himself. Because I am feeling guilty, I start sort of closing myself in, and my spirit gets wrong. But renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me ( Psa 51:11 ).
“The wages of sin is death.” Spiritual death–separation from God. “Cast me not away from Thy presence, O Lord. Remove not, or take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.”
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with a free Spirit [thy free Spirit] ( Psa 51:12 ).
So the prayer for the restoring of the joy of salvation. It is amazing the way sin can just rob you. Unconfessed sin can just rob you of God’s joy in your life. There are so many Christians who are borderline Christians. They try to live as close to the world and still be a Christian as they can, and they are always just trying to find out just how close that is. Always experimenting. Just living on the edge. Flirting with the other side. And they have the dilemma of having too much of Christ to be happy in the world, but too much of the world to be happy in Christ. “Restore unto me Lord, the joy of my salvation. And uphold me with Your free Spirit.”
Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee ( Psa 51:13 ).
In other words, once you have experienced the grace and the goodness of God, then you go out and share it with others. “I’ll teach transgressors Thy ways.”
Deliver me from blood guiltiness ( Psa 51:14 ),
This is, no doubt, that being guilty of the blood of Uriah. Actually, David was a conspirator in his murder. Praying now forgiveness from that.
O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For you don’t desire a sacrifice; else I would give it: you don’t delight in burnt offerings. But the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: and a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise ( Psa 51:14-17 ).
What God really desires is only your being broken over your sin. God isn’t asking or requiring sacrifice. “God, You don’t want sacrifice, else I would give it. But what You really want is just a broken spirit.”
Do good in your good pleasure unto Zion: build the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with the burnt offering, with the whole burnt offering: and then shall they offer the bullocks upon your altar ( Psa 51:18-19 ). “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
This is a portion of Scripture, which can never be read too often. If any among us have never found mercy, let them use this Psalm as their own personal prayer; while those who have found mercy can read between the lines, and read the sweetness of pardon into the bitterness of sorrow for sin. This Psalm was written by David when Nathan came to him after his great sin with Bathsheba. He needed Nathan to come to him to rebuke him. If David had not been in a very sad state of heart, he would not have fallen into the sin; and it was that state of heart which left him so hardened, so obdurate, that he needed Nathan pointedly to say to him, Thou art the man. After that, he wrote and prayed this truly penitential Psalm.
Psa 51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness
He used to talk about being Gods servant; but he says nothing about that now. He used to speak of Gods great love to him; but he cannot realize that now. Yet he appeals to God for mercy: Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness.
Psa 51:1. According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
There they are, they stare me in the face; nobody but thyself can blot them out; do it, Lord, for thy sweet mercys sake. Blot them out of existence, and out of memory; and when thou hast blotted them from thy book of remembrance, then blot them from me, too.
Psa 51:2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
If washing will not do, use fire, use blood, use anything; but cleanse me from my sin.
Psa 51:3. For I acknowledge my, transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Lord, do help me. There is my sin; I cannot shut my eyes to it. I dare not deny it, or excuse it; I make a clean breast of it. I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
Psa 51:4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight
I have sinned against others; but this is the foulness of the blot, the venom of the sting, that I have sinned against my God.
Psa 51:4-5. That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was sharpen in iniquity and in sin did my not mother conceive me.
Behold, for this is a wonder, and I look at it, and I mourn over it; behold, before I had a shape, I was out of shape. Before I saw anything, still there was sin antecedent to my very existence.
Psa 51:6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
But, alas! Lord, what thou desirest, is not there. In my inward part, I find falsehood; in my hidden part, I find folly. Lord, what thou desirest thou must also bestow, or else I shall never have it. Oh, hear thy servants supplication now!
Psa 51:7. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
This is delightful pleading on Davids part. He had seen the priest take the sprigs of hyssop, and dip them in the blood, and then sprinkle the leper therewith; so his prayer is, Lord, give me purification through the atonement. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. It requires strong faith, when under a deep sense of sin, to be quite sure that God can put the sin away. It is a grand thing to be able to say, Wash me, foul as I am wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Psa 51:8. Make me to hear joy and gladness;
Lord, I have heard nothing but groans lately, and I have made no sound but sighs; Make me to hear joy and gladness
Psa 51:8. That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
When God makes us feel the weight of sin, it is a bone-breaking operation, he seems to strike as though he would kill; and only he that thus strikes can afterwards heal. Then he makes each fragment of the bone to sing and praise him.
Psa 51:9. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
You see that the psalmist has many names for sin, for evil, like a great rogue, has many aliases. So it is sometimes sin; sometimes it is transgression, passing over the line of right; and sometimes it is in-equity, or a departure from perfect equity. Call it by whatever name it may be called, Lord, let me be rid of it. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
Psa 51:10. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
My Creator, I am spoiled; come and make me over again. My heart has grown foul. Thou who didst make me, clean me. The watchmaker best cleans the watch that he made. Create in me a clean heart, O my Creator, and renew a right spirit within me.
Psa 51:11. Cast me not away from thy presence;
I have acted as if you were not present, but, oh, do not fling me away!
Do not take away thy presence from me.
Psa 51:11-12. And take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
I was so happy once. Oh, give me back my joy!
Psa 51:12. And uphold me with thy free spirit.
I have fallen foully; let me not fall again. Henceforth, I cannot trust myself; do thou uphold me. I have made free to sin. Lord, send me a freer spirit, that I may be free to follow after righteousness.
Psa 51:13. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways;
He would turn preacher if God would but bless him. He would tell others what great things God had done for him.
Psa 51:13. And sinners shall be converted unto thee.
He felt sure that, if he once told his tale of love, others would he melted, and would turn to God; and no doubt it was the case.
Psa 51:14. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
Oh cleanse me from my sin, and I will sing thy praises forever; and I will sing earnestly, too: My tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
Psa 51:15. O Lord, open thou my lips;
He felt as if he was going too fast when he promised to speak and to sing, so he prayed: O Lord, open thou my lips-
Psa 51:15. And my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
When good men have had a fall, they walk very tenderly afterwards. Put them on their legs, and they are very careful how they move. They are afraid to speak except as God opens their lips.
Psa 51:16. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it
David remembered that, under the law, there was no sacrifice appointed for the expiation of adultery. There were some sins that were left out of the catalogue, and this was one of them.
Psa 51:16-17. Thou delightest not in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. Even for the man who has committed the most atrocious crimes, there is still acceptance if he brings to God the sacrifice of a broken spirit.
Psa 51:17-18. A broken and a contrite heart, O God thou will not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
Now that he feels himself forgiven, be begins to pray for the good estate of the Church of God and the Lords people everywhere. We cannot do that when sin is breaking our bones; but when we get peace and rest, then the first instinct of the newborn life is to pray for Gods kingdom Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
Psa 51:19. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Psa 51:1-9
THE PENITENTIAL OF PENITENTIALS
Here we have adopted the title by Arnold Rhodes, expressing some kind of a superlative for this Psalm, which we think it fully deserves.
For ages, the psalm has been identified with King David’s prayer for pardon, as the superscription has it:
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David; when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
Of all the Oriental kings, satraps, emperors, and rulers of whatever name who ever lived on earth, King David of Israel is no doubt the only one who would have responded to the message of Nathan the Prophet with repentance and prayer as did David. The odds in that generation were a million to one that Nathan would have lost his head if he had confronted any other monarch with a charge of wickedness like that he skillfully leveled against the king of Israel.
It is not David’s terrible sins that entitled him to be called “A Man After God’s Own Heart,” but his confession, his repentance, and his prayers that justly entitled him to such an accolade.
“King David was definitely not one of the habitually wicked who refuse to repent. The saint is the sinner who repents; the wicked man is the sinner who refuses, either to acknowledge his sins or cast himself upon the mercy of God in prayers for pardon.
The scriptural background of this psalm is 2 Samuel 11-12.
Ash’s discerning words about this psalm are:
“This is the zenith of the penitential psalms (Psalms 6; Psalms 32; Psalms 38; Psalms 102; Psalms 130; Psalms 143). There may be no more impassioned or beautiful prayer for forgiveness and renewal in the Bible than here. The poet’s wrongdoing has overwhelmed him. His remorse and his plea are intense.
This psalm has its application now to every man who ever lived. Although written three thousand years ago, “It might have been written yesterday; it describes the vicissitudes of spiritual life of an Englishman as truly as of a Jew.
An organization of the psalm was proposed by Delitzsch:
I. Prayer for the Remission of Sin (Psa 51:1-9).
II. Prayer for Renewal (Psa 51:10-13).
III. A Vow to Offer Spiritual Sacrifices (Psa 51:14-17).
IV. Intercession for Jerusalem (Psa 51:18-19).
A PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS
Psa 51:1-9
“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness:
According to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions;
And my sin is ever before me.
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,
And done that which is evil in thy sight;
That thou mayest be justified when thou speakest,
And be clear when thou judgest.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity;
And in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts;
And in the hidden part thou wilt make me to know wisdom.
Purify thou me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me to hear joy and gladness,
That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
Hide thy face from my sins,
And blot out all mine iniquities.”
These nine verses are as remarkable as anything else in Scripture. There are three elements here which deserve attention.
I. David Accepted Personal Responsibility for what he He Had Done
He speaks of “my” transgression (Psa 51:1), “my” sin and “my” iniquity (Psa 51:2), “my” transgression and “my” sin (Psa 51:3), declares that, “I sinned” (Psa 51:4), again mentions “my” sin in Psa 51:9. Seven times he takes all the blame and guilt upon himself.
David did not attempt to shift the blame as did Adam; he offered no excuse, he pleaded no extenuating circumstances, but simply accepted full responsibility for his deeds. Oh yes, he might have said, “Well that voluptuous female Bathsheba had no business stripping off naked for a bath in full view of the palace; she’s to blame”; or, he might have said, “All the other kings do as they please in matters of this kind; why shouldn’t I be as privileged as they?”
II. David Used Four Different Words for Sin
A number of commentators have noted that David referred to sin as “transgression” (Psa 51:1; Psa 51:3), “iniquity” (Psa 51:2; Psa 51:5; Psa 51:9), “evil” (Psa 51:4), and “sin” (Psa 51:2-5; Psa 51:9). Some pointed out that “sin” means missing the mark, “transgression” means breaking God’s law, and that “iniquity” means wickedness. The big word, however, in this connection is “sin,” which appears five times in these nine verses (Psa 51:1-9).
SIN
There is a great deal more to “sin” than merely “missing the mark.” Sin is a lack of conformity to, or a transgression, especially if deliberate, of a law, precept, or principle regarded as having divine authority.
The synonyms are: crime, criminality, delinquency, depravity, evil, guilt, immorality, iniquity, misdeed, offense, transgression, ungodliness, wrong, or wrong-doing.
All of this might be summarized by saying that, “Sin is any violation of the will of God.”
“Forgive our sins,” is therefore always a sufficient petition.
III. David’s Multiple Petitions
Something of the earnestness and urgency of this marvelous prayer is evident in the number of ways in which the psalmist pleaded for God’s removal of his guilt.
Have mercy upon me (Psa 51:1).
Blot out my transgressions (Psa 51:1; Psa 51:9).
Wash me from mine iniquity (Psa 51:2; Psa 51:7).
Cleanse me from my sin (Psa 51:2).
Purify thou me with hyssop (Psa 51:7).
Hide thy face from my sin (Psa 51:9).
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness (Psa 51:14).
The basis upon which David pleaded for forgiveness was not that of merit in himself, but because of (1) God’s lovingkindness, and (2) the multitude of God’s tender mercies (Psa 51:1).
“According to thy lovingkindness … thy tender mercies” (Psa 51:1). “The psalmist at once begins by grasping the character of God as the sole ground of hope, and implies a true knowledge of God, and of the fact that He can pardon sin no matter how black it is.
“My sin is ever before me” (Psa 51:3). “Sins may be forgiven, but their memory may leave an aching heart for a lifetime. God indeed “forgets sins” when he forgives them, (Jer 31:34); but mortal men are unable to do this.
“Against thee, thee only, have I sinned” (Psa 51:4). Some writers cannot understand a statement like this. How could David have said a thing like this? Had he not contrived the death of Uriah? What does he mean, that “Against God only” had he done wrong? Addis rejected Davidic authorship of this psalm on the basis of this statement.
Nevertheless, the words are appropriately spoken by David. All sin is against God (Gen 39:9), primarily and fundamentally. Of course sin is: (1) against one’s body; (2) against the church; (3) against society; (4) against our fellow human beings, etc., but “all sin” is first and preeminently a violation of our relationship with God. Murder, for example, is a sin, only because our fellow-creatures are made “in God’s image,” and it is God who is sinned against in such a crime.
No man has a proper view of sin until he appreciates the fact that it is always, “A sin against none less than God.
“In sin did my mother conceive me” (Psa 51:5). This verse is the basis from which the doctrine of “Original Sin” was constructed, a doctrine which Jesus Christ flatly contradicted, saying, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, for unto such belongs the kingdom of God” (Mar 10:14).
What then, did David mean by this? “The meaning is simply this that his parents were sinful human beings. Of course, as a result of our being human beings, we are naturally prone to sin. The Bible states that God made man in “His own image” (Gen 1:26); but of Adam, it is stated that, “He begat a son in his own likeness, after his image” (Gen 5:3)! See any difference? It is that difference which David mentioned here, and it pertains to all the human race who were ever born.
“Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts” (Psa 51:6). Rawlinson’s paraphrase of this portion of the prayer is excellent. “As nothing will content thee but this perfect inward purity, wilt thou give me into my heart its fundamental principle of wisdom or the fear of God.
“Purify thou me with hyssop” (Psa 51:7). This seems to be an allusion to the cleansing of a leper (Lev 14:1-7), indicating David’s deep realization of the dreadful nature of his sins.
“Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51:7). Many a hymn has found use of words such as these. Isa 1:18 also mentions the contrast of scarlet sins and the whiteness of snow.
“That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice” (Psa 51:8). Some try to find “a sickness unto death” in the psalmist, based upon this and upon a mistaken version of Psa 51:14, but nothing like that is here. It is not a physical illness that required David’s prayer for deliverance, but a spiritual illness. “His soul (not his body) was deeply distressed by a sense of God’s displeasure.
E.M. Zerr:
General remarks. This remarkable psalm was composed in connection with the sad affair of David and Bathsheba. The student should now read carefully the 11th and 12th chapters of 2 Samuel which will give him the historical setting. There was every indication of genuine repentance on the part of David. Furthermore, not only did he fully repent and make unreserved acknowledgment of his sin to the prophet, but God fully pardoned him. That is, he was spared all personal or bodily punishment for it, though he was required to undergo some bitter experiences and losses as a result of his sin. And while he was forgiven his sin upon repentance and confession, as good a man as David would naturally feel humiliated by the circumstance. We know that when God “forgives” he also “forgets,” and that the frequent pleas in this psalm do not indicate that David needed more than once to be forgiven for the same transgression. Instead, we should regard the repeated expressions as parts of one great supplication before the throne of God for mercy, in answer to which he was fully pardoned and reinstated in the favor of Jehovah.
Psa 51:1. David believed that mercy from God toward a guilty man would have to be on the ground of lovingkindness and not on the merit of man. Hence we often read such expressions as the ones in this verse.
Psa 51:2. Wash was used figuratively because there was no physical ceremony to be performed in the case. The Mosaic system did have much to do in the way of literal cleansing. All figurative expressions are based on literal facts or actions, or at least on the possibility of such facts. David had such as that in his mind when he composed this verse and several to follow in the chapter.
Psa 51:3. Ever before me is rendered by Moffatt, “never out of my mind.” David knew that God forgets when he forgives, but that did not prevent him from remembering the awful affair himself.
Psa 51:4. Against thee only should not be interpreted to mean that the persons involved had not been sinned against. Bathsheba had been violated and her husband had been killed at the instigation of David. The original for only has a meaning that is equivalent to “chiefly.” God is the creator of all things and persons in the universe. For that reason, any injury done to things or persons is the same as being done to Him. David used the expression in view of that fundamental truth. On that basis, also, God would be considered justified when he condemned a guilty man.
Psa 51:5. This verse is relied upon by the advocates of “Adamic sin” or “inherited depravity.” By that is meant that human beings come into the world in a state of sin, having received it from the mother at the time of conception, she having received the same condition from her mother, and so on back to Adam and Eve. The doctrine is not only contrary to the general teaching of the Bible, but is not taught by this verse, as a critical study of the words will show. The words I was shapen are from CHIL and Young translates it, “To be formed, brought forth.” Strong defines it, “A primitive root; properly to twist or whirl (in a circular or spiral manner), i.e. (specifically) to dance, to writhe in pain (especially of parturition [childbirth] ) or fear.” Conceive is from YACHAM and Strong’s first definition is, “a primitive root; probably to be hot.” It is the word for “warm” in Ecc 4:11 where the warmth is caused by the nearness of one body to another, not by one body being enclosed by another. A child being warmed in the arms of his mother would thus be “warmed” in the sense of the present verse. With this critical information, considered in the light of the general teaching of the Bible, the meaning of the verse is clear. It shows that the conditions described by David were dated at and after his birth. That will disprove the doctrine that the stain of sin is attached to a person before he is born. We are not told why David mentioned this subject in connection with his own conduct. However, we have no right to assume what his purpose was and then build up a human theory on the basis of that assumption.
Psa 51:6. This means that God requires man to be sincere in his thoughts. David had shown that quality when the prophet came to chastise him for his sin.
Psa 51:7. Hyssop was used as an instrument to sprinkle the blood of animals in the sacrifices under the Mosaic system (Num 19:18). It is used here in a figurative sense. (See comments at Psa 51:2.) Strictly speaking, nothing can be “whiter” than something else. The expression whiter than snow is figurative and means to emphasize the state of purity in one whom God has cleansed.
Psa 51:8. David’s bones had not been literally broken. He was so overwhelmed by the greatness of his conviction that he used the expression for comparison.
Psa 51:9. David would not even try to minimize his transgressions which he considered were very grievous. But he asked that God in his mercy would overlook them and blot out or forgive him his guilt.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
This is the first of a number of psalms (eighteen) to which titles are prefaced which connect them with David, eight out of the number having historic references. There is a remarkable fitness in every case between the incident thus indicated and the psalm following; but whether the placing is accurate or not is open to question.
This is indeed one of the great penitential psalms, being the fourth in the seven which are usually so described. It opens with a general cry for pardon that comes out of a deep sense of sin and an equally profound desire for forgiveness. In the first three verses sin is described as “transgression, “iniquity:” “sin”; and the mercy sought is to ‘blot out,” “wash,” “cleanse.” The penitent soul cried for forgiveness on the basis of confession. Suddenly the intensity of conviction deepens as the act of sin is traced back to its reason in the pollution of the nature. This leads to a deeper cry. As the first was for pardon, the second is for purity, for cleansing of heart, and renewal of spirit.
The prayer goes on to seek for the things which follow such cleansing, maintenance of fellowship, and consciousness of joy. Looking on in hope, the song anticipates that service of thanksgiving and praise which will issue from such pardon and purity.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
the Prayer of the Contrite Heart
Psa 51:1-10
This psalm is a ladder which climbs from the horrible pit, with its miry clay, into the heights of sunny joy, where the song breaks from the forgiven penitent. Here is the cry of the lost sheep which has been torn by briers, harried by wild dogs, drenched in the morass, but which the shepherd has found and brought home rejoicing. This path has been worn by myriads of penitents. Psa 51:17 was written on the wall of St. Augustines cell.
There is no doubt as to the occasion or the authorship of this psalm. It abounds in references to 2Sa 11:1-27; 2Sa 12:1-31. It is remarkable that such a confession should have been handed to the chief musician; but the publicity thus given has made it a means of grace to myriads. Note the epithets for sin: transgression, the violation of law; iniquity, crookedness from the straight line of rectitude; sin, missing the mark. However much God longs to forgive, He cannot, until confession is made. We must acknowledge our lapse from virtue! Blot out, as from a record; wash, as foul stains from linen; cleanse, as a leper by the touch of Christ. Our only plea is the multitude of Gods tender mercies.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Psa 51:1-2
I. Looking at this triad of petitions, they teach us, first, how David thought of his sin. (1) Observe the reiteration of the same earnest cry in all these clauses. It is not a mere piece of Hebrew parallelism. It is much more the earnestness of a soul that cannot be content with once asking for the blessings and then passing on, but dwells upon them with repeated supplication, not because it thinks that it shall be heard for its much speaking, but because it longs for them so eagerly. (2) Notice, again, that he speaks of his evil as transgressions and as sin, using the plural and then the singular. He regards it first as being broken up into a multitude of isolated acts, and then as being all gathered into one knot, as it were, so that it is one thing. But he does not stop there. His sins are not merely a number of deeds, but they have, deep down below, a common root from which they all come, a centre in which they all inhere. And so he says, not only “Blot out my transgressions,” but “Wash me from mine iniquity.” (3) In all the petitions we see that the idea of his own single responsibility for the whole thing is uppermost in David’s mind. It is “my transgression,” it is “mine iniquity,” and it is “my sin.” (4) The three words which the Psalmist employs for sin give prominence to different aspects of it. Transgression is not the same as iniquity, and iniquity is not the same as sin. The word rendered “transgression” literally means rebellion, a breaking away from, and setting one’s self against, lawful authority. That translated “iniquity” literally means that which is twisted, bent. The word in the original for “sin” literally means missing a mark, an aim.
II. Those petitions show us how David thinks of forgiveness. (1) The first petition conceives of the Divine dealing with sin as being the erasure of a writing, perhaps of an indictment. Our past is a blurred manuscript, full of false things and bad things. We have to spread the writing before God and ask Him to remove the stained characters from the surface that was once fair and unsoiled. (2) The second prayer, “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity,” does not need any explanation, except that the word expresses the antique way of cleansing garments by treading and beating. David then here uses the familiar symbol of a robe to express the “habit” of the soul, or, as we say, the character. That robe is all splashed and stained. He cries to God to make it a robe of righteousness and a garment of purity. (3) “Cleanse me from my sin.” That is the technical word for the priestly act of declaring ceremonial cleanness, the cessation of ceremonial pollution, and for the other priestly act of making, as well as declaring, clean from the stains of leprosy. With reference to both of these uses the Psalmist employs it here.
III. These petitions likewise show us whence the Psalmist draws his confidence for such a prayer. His whole hope rests upon God’s own character as revealed in the endless continuance of His acts of love. And for us who have the perfect love of God perfectly expressed in His Son, that same plea is incalculably strengthened, for we can say, “According to Thy tender mercies in Thy dear Son, blot out my transgressions.”
A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Manchester, 2nd series, p. 95.
References: Psa 51:1-6.-R. S. Candlish, The Gospel of Forgiveness, p. 376. Psa 51:1-13.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 25.
Psa 51:3
It seldom happens that any person has very deep views of sin till he has learned something of the power of a Saviour. As soon as he has learned to appropriate the one, he has learned to appropriate the other; and it is the man who can say, “My Saviour,” who will be able to say, “My sin.”
I. There is an ease and satisfaction-I might almost say there is a pride-in acknowledging sin generally. We like to say, “Lord, there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” We find in those words a covert for the conscience. Sin, to affect the mind, must be seen, not in the class, but in the individual.
II. If you desire to cultivate that frame of mind which becomes a sinner before God, you must labour, not only for self-knowledge, but for very accurate self-knowledge, to go into the little details of life. Seek more personal views of sin. You will find this a very different thing from your general confession-much harder, much more humbling, much more useful.
III. It is a very serious reflection that there is nothing so much our own as our sins. I do not see on what a man has a title to write, “Thou art mine,” unless it be on his sins. Of sin, thus individual and thus possessed, David said that it was “ever before him.”
IV. A man’s sins must come before him at some time or other; and whenever they do come before him, it is a very solemn time. To some, by God’s grace, that meeting comes in mid-life; to some on a deathbed; to some, for the first time, as far as their consent goes, in another world.
V. There are seasons even to a Christian when he must feel, like Job, “I possess the iniquity of my youth.” Still, if these things be, they are certainly exceptions. The sense of forgiveness is essential to holiness. Our sins are among the things that are behind, which we are to forget, and to stretch forth to those that are before. “He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.”
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 2nd scries, p. 310.
There are many things in Holy Scripture which teach us that, however natural it may be, it is not a Christian disposition to be dwelling on our good doings and deservings. A habit of daily repentance is the right thing for us; we should every day be going anew to be washed in the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness; in every prayer, whatever else we ask or omit, we must ask for pardon through Christ, and for the blessed Spirit to sanctify, because we have our “sin ever before us” when we come to the throne of grace. Consider what good we may get through doing as David did and having our sins ever before us. There is no doubt the view is not a pleasant one. Yet things which are painful are sometimes profitable, and assuredly it is so here.
I. It will make us humble to think habitually of the many foolish and wrong things we have done. If we would cultivate that grace, essential to the Christian character, of lowliness in the sight of God, here is the way to cultivate it.
II. The habitual contemplation of our sinfulness will tend to make us thankful to God, to make us contented with our lot, and to put down anything like envy in our hearts at the greater success and eminence of others.
III. To feel our sinfulness, to have our sins set before us by God’s Spirit in such a way that it will be impossible to help seeing them, and seeing them as bad as they really are, is the thing that will lead us to Christ, lead us to true repentance and to a simple trust in Him who “saves His people from their sins.”
A. K. H. B., Counsel and Comfort Spoken from a City Pulpit, p. 110.
Psa 51:3
I. If there be indeed such places as heaven and hell, if we are in real earnest our very selves to be happy or miserable, both soul and body, for ever, then certainly a light way of regarding our sins must be very dangerous. These sins of ours, which we treat as mere trifles, are the very things which our adversary the devil rejoices to see; for he knows that they provoke God, drive away His Holy Spirit, put us out of His heavenly protection, and lay us open to the craft and malice of the powers of darkness.
II. The New Testament teaches the very serious nature of our sins in the most awful way of all: by showing us Christ crucified for them. Those which we think matters of sport are in God’s sight of such deep and fearful consequence, that He parted with His only-begotten Son in order to make atonement for them.
III. Thinking lightly of the past is the very way to hinder you from real improvement in time to come. The wholesome sting of conscience will be dulled and deadened in that man’s mind who refuses to think much of his sins. The warning voice of God’s Holy Spirit will fall on his ear faint and powerless. Not to spare one’s own faults is the true, the manly, the practical way of looking at things; even if there were no express promise of Holy Scripture, one might be sure beforehand that it is the only way to improve.
IV. Through daily knowing more of yourself-that is to say, more of your sins-you will daily be brought nearer and nearer to Him who alone can save sinners, taught to rely altogether on Him, and made to partake more and more of the pardon and holiness which is only to be found in the Cross.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times,” vol. iv., p. 144.
I. When we bid a man, after David’s example, to have his sins ever before him, it is not that we mean him to dwell on his sins alone, as sometimes men do when their minds and bodies are distempered, and they wholly swallowed up with a bitter feeling of remorse. That was not David’s repentance; that is not Christian repentance. He who reads his Bible humbly and continually, because he has his sins ever before him, will find his Christian care and fear soon rewarded, even in the way of present peace and consolation. He will be often withdrawn from himself to contemplate the glorious and engaging patterns which God’s book will show him among God’s people. He will feel by degrees as all men, by God’s grace, would feel in such holy society: not less sorry for and ashamed of his sins, but more and more enabled to mix with his shame and sorrow steady resolutions of avoiding the same for the future and assured hope, through God’s assistance, of becoming really and practically better.
II. Above all, you must think much and often of your sins if you would have true and solid comfort in thinking of the Cross of Christ. Those who do not know something of the misery to which they would have been left if their justly offended God had passed them over-how can they ever be duly thankful for His infinite condescension and mercy in dying for them?
III. By such grave thoughts of ourselves, we keep up a continual recollection of God’s presence, which to a helpless being, wanting support every moment, must be the greatest of all consolations.
IV. The remembrance of our sins and unworthiness may help us against worldly anxiety, and make us very indifferent to worldly things. So also we shall be braced to endure sorrow, knowing that it is fully deserved, and shall be continually humbled and sobered by the remembrance of what He suffered who never deserved any ill. And thus, not being high-minded, but fearing, we shall make every day’s remembrance of our past sins a step towards that eternal peace in which there will be no need of watching against sin any more.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times” vol. iv., p. 152 (see also J. Keble, Sundays after Trinity, pp. 188, 200).
References: Psa 51:3.-Bishop Alexander, Bampton Lectures, 1876, p. 71; A. C. Tait, Lessons for School Life, p. 249; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 1st series, p. 42.
Psa 51:4
Modern blasphemy delights to blacken “the man after God’s own heart.” His was a terrible fall, terrible as well as piteous. He, so blameless in youth-could he, when life had begun to set, be stained so miserably through the passions of youth? It is an intense mystery of sin that man should admit so black a spot where all around was so fair; it is an intenser mystery of God’s love that He should have arrested so black a spot from spreading, and overcasting, and infecting the whole.
I. In one way the sin was irremediable. It changed David’s eternal condition. David, like the blest robber, the first-fruits of the redeeming blood of Jesus, is, through those same merits, glorious with the indwelling glory of God; yet his soul, doubtless one of the highest of much-forgiven penitents, is still a soul which, by two insulated acts, broke to the uttermost God’s most sacred laws of purity and of love.
II. How then was he restored? Grace had been sinned away. He was left to his natural self. He had still that strong sense of justice and hatred of the very sins by which he had fallen, which responded so quickly and so indignantly against cruelty and wrong when called out by Nathan’s parable. He must have had remorse. Remorse is the fruit of the most condescending love of our God. Neglected or stifled, it is the last grace by which God would save the soul; it is the first by which God would prepare the soul which has forfeited grace to return to Him.
III. But remorse, although a first step to repentance, is not repentance. For remorse centres in a man’s self. While it is mere remorse it does not turn to God. And so God, in His love, sent to David the prophet, the very sight of whom might recall to him the mercies of God in the past, His promises for the future, and the memory of those days of innocent service and bright aspirations to which the soul overtaken by sin looks back with such sorrowful yearning. The heavy stone which lay on the choked, dead heart was rolled away; the dead was alive again; the two-edged sword of God’s word, judgment and mercy, had slain him to himself that he might live to God. The awakened soul burst forth in those two words, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Then was remorse absorbed, transformed, spiritualised into penitent love.
IV. But this was the beginning of the renewed life of the soul, not the end. It issued in a constant longing for a recreation, a reverent fear springing from the sense of what it had deserved, an earnest craving for a more thorough cleansing from every stain or spot of sin, a thirst for the purging by the atoning blood, an unvarying sight of his forgiven sinfulness, spreading far and wide from the core of original sin, a longing to do free, noble, generous service, and all from God to God, from God’s re-creating, renewing, enfreedoming, ennobling grace.
E. B. Pusey, Cambridge Lent Sermons, 1864, p. 163.
Reference: Psa 51:4.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii., No. 86.
Psa 51:6
We are never more in danger of forgetting that we are sinners than when contemplating the sufferings and death of Him who died to save us from our sins. Like the first tearful spectators of His sufferings, while we weep for Him we forget to weep for ourselves. We listen to the mysterious cry, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” and think not that our iniquities are among those which at that moment hide from Him His Father’s face. If any portion of God’s word can teach us what sin is, and how it should be looked upon by us, it is this fifty-first Psalm of David, the deepest and most heartfelt confession ever poured forth from the heart of a saint of God in the first bitterness of his sorrow for his greatest sin. On examining this confession of sin, we find that it is twofold. There are two things present to David’s mind to be confessed and mourned over. The first is the sin he has just been guilty of; the second is the sinfulness of his nature. This declaration, “I was shapen in iniquity,” implies two things-guilt and corruption. It means that every human being is born into the world with the wrath of God abiding on him, and the corruption of sin abiding in him.
I. We inherit from Adam guilt; he stood before God the representative of all humanity, their federal head, in whom they entered into covenant with their Maker; in him we all once stood upright; in him we were tried; in him we fell; in him we were judged and condemned. (1) St. Paul adduces, in evidence of this doctrine, one fact familiar to us all; it is the fact that men die. Death is the wages of sin; whoever dies therefore has earned death by sin. The death of those to whom no actual sin could be charged is a clear proof that they were held guilty of the original sin of Adam, their federal head. (2) This fact, that death has passed upon all alike, not only proves the doctrine of original sin, but supplies to a certain extent an answer to the objections made to that doctrine on the score of justice. For the injustice of imparting to us Adam’s guilt is certainly no greater than that of inflicting upon us Adam’s punishment. There is no greater difficulty in admitting that we inherit from him a guilty soul than there is in admitting that we inherit from him a diseased and dying body. (3) Though, from the history of the Fall itself, we can thus clearly vindicate the imputation of Adam’s sin from the charge of injustice, yet it is from the history of our redemption that we draw our fullest and most triumphant proof of its justice. Imputation is to be seen in our salvation as well as in our condemnation. If we are accounted to have fallen in the first Adam, we are accounted to have risen in the second Adam. If “God has concluded all under sin,” we see that it is that “He may have mercy upon all.”
II. Fallen man inherits not only a guilty, but a corrupt, nature. Original righteousness consisted in three things-knowledge in the understanding, righteousness in the will, holiness in the affections. Original sin must then consist in the loss of each of these qualities. Original sin is (1) darkness in the understanding, (2) disobedience in the will, and (3) lawlessness in the affections. When we are tempted to plead the sinfulness of our nature in excuse for our sins, let us think that the one offends the holiness as much as the other offends the justice of God, and both alike require His pardoning mercy and His sanctifying grace; both equally need to be confessed and mourned over.
Bishop Magee, Sermons at the Octagon Chapel, Bath, p. 1.
References: Psa 51:5.-Expository Sermons and Outlines on the Old Testament, p. 224. Psa 51:5-7.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 117.
Psa 51:6
Life is a journey, and the training of the soul by the toils and changes of its pilgrimage is expressed by the law that the character undergoes a gradual preparation, and that thai preparation is subject to an apparently sudden close.
I. What is the hindrance in the human soul to a right application of this fundamental law? The answer broadly is this: The poison of character. Pride and sensuality are the chief evils that poison character.
II. To counteract this, we need to establish the undisputed authority of truth. Jesus Christ is the Truth. The Church is the unfolding of Jesus Christ, and He is the Revealer of the Father. It is by the illumination of grace that the harmony of truth is seen, and only so; it is by the co-operation of will, assisted by the grace of God, that man can see and use what he sees.
III. To direct the soul in the path of preparation, it is needful then that that soul should be struggling to be true. This desire is cramped, is injured, by the Fall. And one of the blessed gifts of the regenerate is a more earnest revival of such desire. There are at least three forms of conspiracy against truth observable in human character: (1) hypocrisy; (2) “cant;” (3) insincerity. Truth of heart is that heavenly principle whereby each soul is guided to a blessed result, under the action of the law of life in subjection to which we prepare to meet our Redeemer and our Judge. God is truth, and God is reigning. They who “will to do His will shall know.” Seek, above all, to be true, for truth is like Him; and truth is therefore the first condition of a soul’s perfection.
J. Knox-Little, Manchester Sermons, p. 125.
References: Psa 51:6.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 28; New Manual of Sunday-school Addresses, p. 168; W. Hay Aitken, Newness of Life, p. 50; F. W. Farrar, In the Days of thy Youth, p. 358; F. D. Maurice, Sermons in Country Churches, p. 190. Psa 51:7.-C. J. Evans, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 357; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii., No. 1937; E. J. Hardy, Faint yet Pursuing, p. 123. Psa 51:7-12.-R. S. Candlish, The Gospel of Forgiveness, p. 391.
Psa 51:8
I. (1) The sin of David was (a) a sin against light, and (b) a sin without excuse. He fell with frightful injury to himself, and the effect of Samuel’s unction on his head when he made him king over Israel was in this instance only to give him a tyranny over the souls of others. (2) This is its outward aspect. How is it when we look within? Still sadder, still more desperate. He never flinched from the sight of his sin. He looked upon the ghastly sight in apathy. Nathan put his case before him in the form of a parable; he touched David just on the tenderest part, that is, his unkindness and ingratitude. But David felt nothing; he was as secure in the prophet’s presence as if he had been guiltless. He was as blind as Balaam when an angel stopped the way.
II. The repentance. (1) First take the signs of his humility. He suffers Nathan to accuse him of his sins, to threaten him with vengeance, to insult his wives, to condemn his infant child to death. He does not interrupt him; he does not retaliate; he does not so much as breathe an excuse or pray for pity. There is no thought of self, or fear of man, or love of praise. (2) See in after-years the fruits of his repentance, those good works and holy tempers of humility and love which gush out and stream over the heart which really repents and is converted. (3) Notice his cheerful confidence, which I venture to call the specially Christian character of his repentance. Just as there is no limit to his confession of sin, so there is none to his hope of restoration. Now we know why God acknowledged David’s penitence and forgave him at the instant. In his penitence he had humility, meekness, perseverance, the sense of shame rather than the fear of pain, above all that confidence of faith which the Gospel thus describes: “If thou canst believe, all things are possible.”
C. W. Furse, Sermons at Richmond, p. 154.
References: Psa 51:8.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv., No. 861. Psa 51:9.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xiv., p. 207.
Psa 51:10
Three things must happen before anything can be created. The Spirit of God must move upon the face of it, the word of God must speak to it, and the blood of Christ must wash it.
I. If you wish to be God’s children indeed, the Holy Spirit must work in your heart. As the Spirit moved over the face of the waters, so must the Holy Spirit move in your heart. The Holy Spirit is often compared to water, because water makes clean.
II. The Bible is the word of God. When God made the world, He spake with His mouth. Now His speech is in the Bible. In Eph 5:26 we read, “That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word”-that is, the Bible.
III. And Jesus Christ, we know, must cleanse us too. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
IV. Suppose you have a clean heart, will it keep clean? Here comes the beauty of the text. It says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God;” and the next part says, “Renew it”-“Renew a right spirit within me.” This is what we want every day. If clean today, it will be dirty to-morrow. Therefore we must say, Renew it over and over again. “Renew a right spirit within me.”
J. Vaughan, Children’s Sermons, 1875, p. 229.
References: Psa 51:10.-Spurgeon, Sermon’s, vol. ix., No. 490; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 305; E. B. Pusey, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii., p. 181.
Psa 51:10-12
I. Here is a remarkable outline of a holy character. Of these three gifts-“a right spirit,” “Thy Holy Spirit,” a “free spirit”-the central one alone is in the original spoken of as God’s, the “Thy” of the last clause of the English Bible being an unnecessary supplement. The central petition stands in the middle, because the gift which it asks is the essential and fundamental one from which there flow and, as it were, diverge on the right hand and on the left the other two. God’s Spirit given to a man makes the human spirit holy, and then makes it right and free. (1) As to that fundamental petition “Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me,” one thing to notice is that David regards himself as possessing that Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul because Saul had refused His counsel and departed from Him; and Saul’s successor, trembling as he remembers the fate of the founder of the monarchy and of his vanished dynasty, prays with peculiar emphasis of meaning, “Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.” (2) The primary idea in the holiness which David so earnestly desires is that of separation-separation for God and separation from sin. (3) “A right spirit.” “A constant or firm spirit,” is the Psalmist’s meaning. (a) There is no stability and settled persistency of righteous purpose possible for us unless we are made strong because we lay hold on God’s strength and stand firm because we are rooted in Him. (b) You can only get and keep purity by resistance. In such a world as this, with such hearts as ours, weakness is wickedness in the long run. “Add to your faith manly vigour.” (4) A “free spirit.” He who is holy because full of God’s Spirit, and constant in his holiness, will likewise be free. That is the same word which is in other places translated “willing;” and the scope of the Psalmist’s desire is, “Let my spirit be emancipated from sin by willing obedience.”
II. Desires for holiness should become prayers. David does not merely long for certain spiritual excellencies; he goes to God for them. He has found out two things about his sin both of which make him sure that he can only be what he should be by God’s help. (1) “Against Thee only have I sinned.” (2) He sees in his one deed more than an isolated act: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity.”
III. Observe that prayers for perfect cleansing are permitted to the lips of the greatest sinners. Knowing all his guilt, and broken and contrite in heart (crushed and ground to powder, as the words mean), utterly loathing himself, aware of all the darkness of his deserts, he yet cherishes unconquerable confidence in the pitying love of God, and believes that, in spite of all his sin, he may yet be pure as the angels of heaven-ay, even holy as God is holy.
A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Manchester, p. 112.
References: Psa 51:10, Psa 51:17.-E. C. Wickham, Wellington College Sermons, p. 22. Psa 51:11.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvi., No. 954; Homiletic Magazine, vol. xii., p. 272.
Psa 51:12
I. The joy of God’s salvation is the joy of a sufficient and final answer to the self-upbraidings of a guilty soul.
II. The joy of a portion which satisfies the heart’s largest conceptions and desires.
III. The joy of an answer to all the difficulties and perplexities which beset the spirit and the intellect in their progress.
IV. The joy of having the key to all the mysterious ways of Providence in the world.
V. The joy of victory over death.
VI. The joy of living union with God, with Christ, with all living and blessed beings, eternally.
J. Baldwin Brown, Aids to the Development of the Divine Life, No. 5.
Psa 51:12
I. In the first place, this text distinctly shadows out the sovereignty of the action of the Holy Ghost. For very free, so free as to be utterly untraceable and incalculable, we now know, with better teaching than David’s, are the wind-like motions of the Holy Ghost. One man’s experience of spiritual things is no measure for another’s. No two Christians are ever cast into exactly the same mould, because He divideth to every man severally as He will, for the Spirit is free.
II. The Holy Spirit, wherever He comes, comes unmerited and unbought. You may pray for the Spirit, and He may come in answer to your prayer; but remember, He first inspired the wish which made the prayer which brought the answer.
III. He is the free Spirit because He is the great Liberator of us all. Is it too much to say that he who is under the expanding influences of the Spirit of God is free, and all besides are slaves? To the free Spirit it belongs not only to commence, but to carry on, the great work of grace within a man’s soul. As the Holy Ghost is God, He must partake of that fatherly character in which, we believe, all Deity stands to His creatures; and a father’s aim is always to hold up his child, and to give the strongest arm to the weakest of his offspring.
IV. Our Lord Himself has taught us to view the Holy Spirit under the emblem of water. It is the fundamental law of water that its property is always to rise towards the level of the height from whence it came. True to its type, the Holy Spirit is always ascending to the glory from which it came down to us; and as it mounts, it bears within it, heavenward, the heart that owns it.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 2nd series, p. 159.
References: Psa 51:12.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xiv., p. 28;Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 267; L.Wiseman, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 406. Psa 51:12, Psa 51:13.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix., No. 1130.
Psa 51:13
I.
It is the characteristic of the people of God that they desire the conversion of sinners unto God; they are not at least in a healthy state when this desire is not active. So far as there is backsliding, this principle may be crushed and weakened; but let there be renewed repentance, forgiveness, cleansing, the joy of God’s salvation, and this principle reappears. “Sinners shall be converted unto Thee.” That implies (1) that sinners are away from God; (2) that the conversion of a sinner is possible. Our distance from God is the distance of a different, a contrarious nature; it is the distance of alienation from the original constitution of man’s moral nature. And as like draws to like, so do differences shrink from differences, specially contrarieties from contrarieties. So, save in the new and living way, God keeps back from sinners, and sinners shrink back from God.
II.
Sinners are away from God. And what they need is to come back. They cannot return to God by the old way; but God has opened up a new way for the sinner’s return. And now all that God wants of the sinner is simply that he come back again. Conversion as wrought by the Spirit of God is God’s act; conversion as wrought within a sinner denotes His acting also. The Spirit of God is a moral agent. The work of the Spirit is set forth in this prayer: “Turn Thou us;” and the duty on the sinner’s part is set forth in such commands as these: “Be converted;” “Turn ye at My reproof.” There is ordinarily in conversion the following method: (1) Conviction. As a rational creature, you cannot turn till you have been convinced that you are all in the wrong and God all in the right. (2) There is compunction. “They were pricked to the heart.” The effect of compunction is that the sinner cannot endure sin; compunction makes sin intolerable. (3) There is humiliation. I do not mean here the Christian grace of humility, but the soul’s case when the sinner finds that he cannot save himself, and is forced to submit that another should do this great work for him, when, finding he can do nothing to deliver himself, he looks around for a friend. And that friend must be a saviour.
III.
Sinners are away from God, and being so, can neither be holy nor happy. But sinners may be converted. For sinners of mankind there is a covenant of grace, so their conversion is a possibility. The sinner is willing to be saved, but by whom? He has heard of Christ. Yes, and he had heard of the Law before he was convinced by means of it; but now it has taken its real, effectual hold upon him. And now the Gospel is to him very much what the Law was to him. He has found the Law, and he has heard by the hearing of the ear, from his fellow-men, from Apostles and prophets, of a Saviour. But the same Spirit who has taught him his sin and misery instructs him in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And these three things he is called to attend to: the God of the covenant, the provisions of the covenant, and the Mediator of the covenant.
IV.
“Sinners shall be converted unto Thee.” It is therefore not sufficient that a conversion be really a conversion; it must be a conversion unto God. The covenant of grace is made with covenant-breakers. (1) It contains this: “I will write My law in their hearts.” It is implied that the law is not there, that it needs to be there, and that neither you nor any creature for you can write it there. (2) This is a covenant with ignorant creatures who have not the knowledge of God. (3) The covenant contains this: “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” God’s purpose to forgive is a definite purpose. His forgivingness belongs to His nature, and is infinite. Refusal to take hold of this covenant takes either of these two forms: unwillingness to be saved by Christ or disbelief that He will save you.
V.
The conversion of a sinner is a matter in which the gracious God takes the deepest interest. The voice of conscience is very feeble in fallen man, and the voice of depravity very loud and imperious, and it silences it. But while sinners are not objects of compassion to themselves, they are objects of compassion to God. The conversion of sinners is not accomplished by mere moral suasion; it is of Divine power, yet not so of Divine power as that there is not the use of moral suasion-of counsels, motives, and means such as may operate upon rational creatures. Therefore sinners who desire conversion should be very attentive to God’s appointed means of grace.
J. Duncan, The Pulpit and Communion Table, p. 310 (five sermons).
References: Psa 51:13-15.-R. S. Candlish, Gospel of Forgiveness, p. 408. Psa 51:14.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 713; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 98; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 94.
Psa 51:16-17
These words, though none were ever spoken in the world that could be so little intended to perplex any worshipping Israelite, nevertheless must have strangely clashed with some of his most cherished and familiar thoughts. “Thou delightest not in burnt-offering.” Why then was it said that the Lord smelled a sweet savour when Noah brought forth the clean beasts after the Flood? And supposing that, in some sense, the heart was a better offering than the bullock or goat, must it not, according to all symbols and analogies, be a whole heart in order to be accepted?
I. The fiftieth Psalm exhibits the chosen race as summoned to answer for itself before its Divine King. It is assumed that the nation is holy, and that God has claimed it as holy by taking it into covenant with Himself. The covenant cannot be separated from sacrifice. This principle was embodied in the institution of the Passover; every part of the service testified that the Israelites were a dedicated, devoted, sacrificed nation. The animal was a dead offering; they were a living offering. The great trial or judgment then which the Lord of the land is making of His subjects has this issue: Have they acted as if this were their state, as if they were dedicated, sacrificed creatures? They had fancied Him altogether such a one as themselves, One who could be bribed as they were bribed. Here indeed was a wonderful exposition of that falsehood which was leading the Israelite astray in all the periods of his history. He supposed that God’s toleration of his sins was to be purchased, and that sacrifice was the purchase-money.
II. No one could have taught his countrymen these lessons who had not learned that he needed to be judged and reformed; that he could not judge and reform himself; that the Searcher of hearts, the King of his land, was doing that work for him; that to submit frankly and freely to that process was the man’s part of the covenant, was the sacrifice which God, above all others, demanded of him. And this is the link between the fiftieth and the fifty-first Psalms.
III. Here was the explanation of the strange fact that a broken heart was better than a whole one; that the maimed offering might be presented by the Israelite, who was to bring only of the firstlings of his flock. The sacrifice was a more complete, a more entire, one than David had ever yet presented. The discovery that he had nothing to present, that he was poor and worthless, was the discovery that he belonged wholly to God, that he was His, and that his sin had consisted in withdrawing from his allegiance, in choosing another condition than his true and actual one.
F. D. Maurice, The Doctrine of Sacrifice, p. 86.
References: Psa 51:16, Psa 51:17.-W. M. Punshon, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 283, and Old Testament Outlines, p. 117; C. Kingsley, Sermons for the Times, p. 292. Psa 51:16-19.-R. S. Candlish, Gospel of Forgiveness, p. 422.
Psa 51:17
The difference between good and bad men in Holy Scripture may be said to consist in this: whether they have or have not “a broken and a contrite spirit;” the degrees of their acceptance with God seem to depend on this; and in consequence we! shall find in those who are most of all approved some expression that implies this temper. A broken and contrite heart alone can embrace Christ crucified; and he who is most diligent in works of evangelical righteousness will be most contrite, and therefore will most of all have faith in Christ crucified.
I. All good works which God has prepared for us to walk in bring us to know God, and to know ourselves, and consequently to a broken spirit. And the effect of a careless, thoughtless, sinful life, and indeed of every sin, is to close the eyes, so that we cannot see, and the ears, that we cannot hear.
II. It is evident that we have all great reason to fear lest God should take from us His most Holy Spirit, who dwells with the contrite. Nothing can make the heart contrite but the Holy Spirit of God. It is certain that the Holy Spirit will depart from those who reject Him; that it is He who darkens the eyes, and shuts up the ears, and hardens the heart. The very ease and indifference with which we are apt to hear, and see, and act affords us a reasonable cause for apprehension. Is not our very unconcern enough to concern us? “Blessed is he,” we are told, “who feareth always.”
Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times” vol. vii., p. 250 (see also J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Christmas to Epiphany, p. 357).
Notice one or two of those accepted sacrifices which from time to time have been set up in our world, and which the Holy Spirit has recorded for our humiliation, our comfort, and our happiness.
I. The repentance of David was the repentance of a fallen child of God. If we can say that David’s confession was the cause of his forgiveness, in a truer sense we may say David’s forgiveness was the cause of his repentance. It was none other than the fountain of God’s forgiving love that opened the fountain of a penitent spirit.
II. The case of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, was as dissimilar to that of David as it is possible for the manifestation of the same grace to be in two places. Manasseh was a dissolute, godless man for more than half the years of his life. David was aroused by a voice, Manasseh by an iron chain. Out of the depths he cried to God. Sorrow made him acquainted with himself; prayer made him acquainted with God.
III. The history of the Ninevites stands out with this signalising mark, that our Lord Himself adduced it as the very standard of true repentance, by which others at the last great day shall be measured and condemned. The distinguishing feature in their repentance was that it was national.
IV. Mary was saved at Jesus’ feet, Peter by a look from Jesus’ eye. With each God deals separately-as He pleases, and as each requires. But in all sin is the parent of the sorrow, sorrow is the parent of the joy, and joy is the parent of holiness. Grace and the God of grace are the same yesterday, today, and for ever, “all in all.”
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 181.
Notice:-
I. The broken heart. This is the most emphatic term that can be employed for setting forth intense sorrow. (1) A broken heart is one which renounces all idea of merit and seeks alone for mercy. (2) A broken heart will always feel its sins to be peculiarly its own. (3) A third accompaniment of a broken heart, and one never wanting, is this: a full confession of sin. When the broken heart makes confession, it does so in the plainest language possible. (4) A broken heart mourns most over the Godward aspect of sin. This is a very crucial test. David says, “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned.” (5) A broken heart will never cavil with God about the deserved punishment. (6) A broken heart will mourn its general depravity. (7) A broken heart will always be as anxious for purity as for pardon. It cries not only, “Blot out my transgressions,” but “Create in me a clean heart.” (8) A broken heart is not a despairing heart. A broken heart does not doubt God’s power to cleanse, nor does it call in question God’s willingness to forgive. A despairing heart knows nothing about this. (9) A broken heart is an agonised heart.
II. A broken heart is a heart that God will never despise. We have His royal word for it. (1) Christ will never despise it, and that for a very good reason. He has suffered from it Himself. (2) He will not despise it because He broke thy heart. It would be despising His own handiwork were He to reject a contrite spirit.
A. G. Brown, Penny Pulpit, No. 1036.
References: Psa 51:17.-E. Garbett, The Soul’s Life, p. no; Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons, 3rd series, p. 99; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 1st series, p. 40; R. M. McCheyne, Memoir and Remains, p. 393.
Psalm 51
David, in the opening of this Psalm, appeals for mercy. No penitent man ever approached God on the side of His justice. The Pharisee, indeed, appeals to righteousness; but the publican appeals for mercy.
I. “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” Mark the thoroughness of this desire. Not only must sin be blotted out, but the sinner himself must be. washed and cleansed. There must be not merely a change of state, but a change of nature. David’s words all come, as it were, from the centre of his being. There is no trifling with the surface here.
II. “For I acknowledge my transgressions.” Confession is a necessary basis of forgiveness. Confession is in reality a multitudinous act; it is many acts in one; it is a convergence of right judgment, right feeling, and right action.
III. In the third verse the Psalmist uses an extraordinary expression, viz., “My sin is ever before me.” The point to be noted here is the distinct personal relation which every man sustains to his own sin. It is emphatically and exclusively his own.
IV. “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned,” etc. The idea is that all sin is against. God. Whoever sins against man sins against God. Then how sacred are all human relations. Every blow struck against humanity is a blow struck against God.
V. Up to the twelfth verse the Psalmist confines his intercessions to subjects which relate immediately to his own spiritual condition; but in ver. 13 he includes others with himself: “Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways.” Mark the connection between true personal holiness and true worldwide benevolence. This is the secret of all evangelistic movement. The work begins in personal consecration. Ver. 17 shows that all sacrifice is worthless which is not vitalised by the moral element.
Parker, Wednesday Evenings at Cavendish Chapel, p. 1.
References: Psa 51:18.-A. P. Stanley, Sermons on Special Occasions, p. 328. Psalm 51-A. Maclaren, Life of David, p. 216; F. W. Robertson, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 84; F. Thluck, Hours of Devotion, p. 25.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Psalm 51
The Confession
1. Conviction and prayer for forgiveness (Psa 51:1-8)
2. Prayer for cleansing and restoration (Psa 51:9-13)
3. Blood guiltiness acknowledged (Psa 51:14-17)
4. Prayer for Zion (Psa 51:18-19)
This great penitential Psalm, according to the inscription, was the outburst of confession and repentance of David when Nathan had uncovered his sin. Well has it been said, So profound a conviction of sin, so deep and unfeigned a penitence, so true a confession, a heart so tender, so contrite, a desire so fervent for renewal, a trust so humble, so filial in the forgiving love of God, are such as we might surely expect from the man after Gods own heart. We cannot enter into all the petitions and expressions of sorrow over sin which are found in this remarkable Psalm. It goes deep in confession and brokenness of spirit. All the saints of God know something of such deep soul exercises on account of sin.
We point out the prophetic meaning of the Psalm. It is the future confession of Israel of their sin and especially their blood guiltiness which is upon that nation. It is therefore the answer of penitent Israel to the words of the righteous judge in the preceding Psalm. David had blood guiltiness upon him. And when the Jews delivered the Holy One into the hands of the Gentiles they cried, His blood be upon us and upon our children. This blood guiltiness will then be confessed when the Lord comes, when they look upon Him whom they pierced and shall mourn for Him (Zec 12:10). Isa 53:1-12 is a similar confession which Israel will yet make. It will be the time of their deep contrition, national repentance and weeping. Then they will become the teachers of the Gentiles, to teach transgressors His ways, that sinners be converted unto Him. They will sing aloud of His righteousness, when the Lord has taken away their sins. Then they will bring sacrifices of righteousness and the Lord will do good to Zion and build Jerusalem.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Have
This Psalm must ever be, in its successive steps, the mould of the experience of a sinning saint who comes back to full communion and service. The steps are:
(1) sin thoroughly judged before God (Psa 51:1-6);
(2) forgiveness and cleansing through the blood Psa 51:7.f.c.)
(3) cleansing (Psa 51:7-10.) Cf Joh 13:4-10; Eph 5:26; 1Jn 1:9.
(4) Spirit-filled for joy and power (Psa 51:11-12);
(5) service (Psa 51:13);
(6) worship (Psa 51:14-17);
(7) the restored saint in fellowship with God, not about self, but about the blessing of Zion. Personally, it was David’s pathway to restored communion after his sin with Bathsheba. Dispensationally, it will be the pathway of returning Israel. Deu 30:1-10.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
after: 2Sa 11:2-27
O God: Psa 25:6, Psa 25:7, Psa 109:21, Psa 119:124, Exo 34:6, Exo 34:7, Num 14:18, Num 14:19, Dan 9:9, Dan 9:18, Mic 7:18, Mic 7:19, Rom 5:20, Rom 5:21, Eph 1:6-8, Eph 2:4-7
multitude: Psa 5:7, Psa 69:13, Psa 69:16, Psa 106:7, Psa 106:45, Isa 63:7, Isa 63:15, *marg. Lam 3:32
tender: Psa 40:11, Psa 77:9, Psa 145:9
blot: Psa 51:9, Neh 4:5, Isa 43:25, Isa 44:22, Jer 18:23, Act 3:19, Col 2:14
Reciprocal: Num 5:23 – blot 2Sa 11:4 – he lay 2Sa 12:1 – he came 2Sa 24:14 – for his 1Ki 15:5 – save only 1Ch 21:8 – do away 1Ch 21:13 – great Neh 13:22 – spare me Psa 9:13 – Have Psa 30:10 – Hear Psa 31:16 – save Psa 41:4 – Lord Psa 103:3 – forgiveth Psa 119:26 – declared Psa 119:58 – I entreated Psa 119:77 – thy tender Psa 119:149 – according unto Psa 119:156 – are thy Pro 6:33 – and his Pro 28:13 – whoso Isa 55:7 – for Jer 9:24 – lovingkindness Eze 18:22 – his transgressions Luk 7:42 – he Luk 11:4 – forgive us Luk 18:13 – God 2Co 7:7 – mourning Gal 5:17 – the flesh Jam 5:11 – the Lord is
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
A Penitent’s Prayer
Psa 51:1-19
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We will set forth, by way of introduction, the story of David’s sin and of how he was reproved by Nathan, the Prophet. We may also emphasize how David had groaned within himself for two miserable years.
1. The story of David’s sin. David had become enamored with Bath-sheba, who was wife to Uriah. In this he sinned grievously. God had given him wives who should have been his full joy and satisfaction. Bath-sheba was the wife of another man and certainly lay beyond David’s rightful desires.
The lustings of the flesh have slain many strong men. Samson was overcome by the godless Delilah. Solomon was enamored by many women. Well did he write, in his mature years, of the strange woman: “Hearken unto me now therefore, O, ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. For she hath cast down many wounded.”
2, The story of Nathan’s reproof. We are all familiar with the way that Nathan came to David reciting the parable of “The Ewe Lamb.” Nathan described two men in one city. The one was rich and the other was poor. The rich man, with many flocks and herds, spared his own flock, and slew one of the poor man’s lambs and dressed it for a wayfarer, who had come to lodge with him.
When David heard the story he was angered against the rich man, and said,-“As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die.” Nathan was quick to reply, “Thou art the man.” David had been blessed of the Lord. He had many wives, and much of wealth and glory, yet, he displeased the Lord in this thing; and, ordered Joab, that Uriah, the husband of Bath-sheba, should be killed in battle. Afterward David married Uriah’s wife.
Christians must not think that they can sin with impunity. Grace is no excuse for excesses in sin. Saints, as well as sinners, must reap what they sow. The Lord will chasten any believer who steps outside the path of rectitude.
3. The story of David’s groanings. After David had sinned he became weary with his groanings. He watered his couch with his tears. His eye was consumed with grief, and his bones waxed old with their roaring. He cried at night, but there was no voice to hear. He looked to God, but the Lord hid, as it were, His face from him.
Saddest of all was this fact, that David’s sin caused the enemy to blaspheme the Name of the Lord.
We thank God that the time came when David confessed his sin, and kept silence no longer. He said, “I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord.” Then it was that the Lord forgave him, and restored him to the sweetest of fellowship with Himself.
In after years, when David fled from Absalom, his son, there were those who threw at him to jeer,-“There is no help for him in God.” David felt that this rebuke was cast upon him by some who thought that all of his troubles were the result of his sin against Uriah. David, however, knew that this could not be, because he had cried unto the Lord with his voice, and the Lord had heard him out of His Holy Hill. Thus it was that David, sustained by the Lord, laid down and slept. He was not afraid of ten thousands of people who beset him round about, for his hope was in God.
“What though th’ accuser roar
Of ills that I have done;
I know them well, and thousands more:
Jehovah findeth none.
His be the Victor’s name
Who fought our fight alone;
Triumphant saints no honor claim;
Their conquest was His own.”
I. “HAVE MERCY UPON ME” (Psa 51:1)
As we hear the opening statement of David’s prayer, which he prayed when Nathan the Prophet came unto him, after he had sinned in the case of Bath-sheba, we are struck with the second word of his prayer. That word was “mercy.” We are reminded of the man who, though a publican, beat upon his breast, and cried, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
Again, we are reminded of the blind man on the Jericho road, who cried, “Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.”
He who comes into the presence of the holy and righteous Lord, dare not come parading his own goodness, thereby, seeking justice. He must of necessity approach God, acknowledging his sins and pleading for His mercy.
How gracious is the Scripture found in 1Jn 2:1-“If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins.” The word “propitiation,” is “mercy-seat.” We have a mercy-seat with the Father. Christ is that mercy-seat. How, then, dare we plead anything with God concerning our own work, or merit? If we think that we shall receive anything of the Lord on such a basis, we do err.
Grace operates on the basis of man’s worthlessness, and of Christ’s worth. Love is akin to grace, and both love and grace are made possible because of mercy.
In Eph 2:1-22, we read of the sinner’s sins-how he was dead, but God, “who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us,… for by grace are ye saved.” God’s love made possible His mercy, and mercy was established in His grace.
David then was right in his method of approach when he cried, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness.”
“For the tempted, Lord, we pray;
For the souls that go astray,
Beaten back by storm and sleet.
Scorned by all they chance to meet;
On them let Thy mercy shine,
Still remember they are Thine.”
II. WASH ME, PURGE ME-CLEANSE ME (Psa 51:2; Psa 51:7)
David pled God’s mercy, but he did not desire to continue in his evil ways. He wanted to be washed from his iniquities, cleansed from his sin, purged from his evil ways.
1. Note the cry, “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity.” David felt that his sin lay deep in his life. He cried out, “I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
Sin, to David, was not a mere misstep. It was the outworking of a corrupt human nature. No marvel, then, that he cried, “Wash me throughly.” He wanted the power of God to cleanse him within. There is a song we have often heard, which runs,-
“Oh wash me Thou, without, within,
Or purge with fire, if that must be;
No matter how, if only sin,
Die out in me, die out in me.”
It is the will of God to wash us through and through, so far as the power and effectiveness of His Blood is concerned; it is also the will of God that we should reckon ourselves dead unto sin. God would not have us slaves to sin’s power, for He has said, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” He has also said, “Sin shall not have dominion over you.”
2. Observe the plea, “Cleanse me from my sin.”
David wanted no stigma of his sin left upon him. He wanted the very odor of his evil ways to be passed. He wanted to be purged with hyssop. He wanted a washing and a cleansing that would make him whiter than snow.
In all of this, David prayed in the will of God. Did not God say: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow”?
“Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole,
I want Thee for ever to live in my soul;
Break down every idol, cast out every foe-
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow,
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Lord Jesus, let nothing unholy remain,
Apply Thine own Blood, and extract every stain;
To get this blest cleansing I all things forego-
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
III. “MAKE ME TO HEAR JOY AND GLADNESS” (Psa 51:8)
1. We have before us David’s confession of sorrow and grief. He cried, “Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice.”
How grievous must have been David’s broken bones! In the 32nd Psalm, David confessed, “When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day.” David admitted, that day and night God’s hand was heavy upon him. He said, “My moisture is turned into the drought of summer.”
Some have vainly imagined that the pleasures of sin are sweet. No greater mistake could be made. Even the wicked, in their sins, are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest. The saints, however, when they sin, have a bitter cup to drink.
Do you remember how Peter cursed, and swore, and said, “I know not this Man of whom ye speak”? Do you think that the three days which followed Peter’s denial, were days of pleasantness? As Peter stood at the foot of the Cross, an eyewitness of Christ’s sufferings, his heart must have wept as he seemed to hear the echo of the words of his denial. When Christ was buried, Peter’s sky must have been doubly dark. Truly, darkness brooded over his soul.
2. We have before us David’s longing to hear joy and gladness. He had drunk deeply of the cup of his sin. He had had enough of bitterness, and of aching bones. He sought once more the joy of sins forgiven.
In Psa 51:12 he cried, “Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation.” The word “restore” suggests that he had once known the joy of the Lord. The truth is, David had been used to feasting his soul on the Heavenly manna. He had known what it was to bask in the sunshine of the Lord’s smile. Now, he sought again that Divine presence, wherein were fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore.
IV. “CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART” (Psa 51:10)
Once more David is examining the cause of his sin. He realizes that the fountain from which the muddy waters of his disobedience had sprung, must have been corrupt. For this reason he cried, praying for the creation of a clean heart, and the renewing of a right spirit within him.
The Lord Jesus once said, “For, out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, fornication, adulteries,” etc. Then He added, All these evil things come from within, “and defile the man.”
The trouble with Israel, of old, lay primarily in the fact that she had a stony heart. Therefore, she could not walk in the Lord’s ways. When Christ comes again He gives the promise, “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.” “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh.” This is in. line with David’s prayer.
When Christ was talking to Nicodemus, He spoke of the new birth. He said, “Ye must be born again.” Here is a message akin to what we are now giving. David did not need the new birth. He was God’s child, but he did need power that his new life might hold sway.
Have we not read of how the Holy Spirit wrote to the Ephesians, “Put off * * the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” Have we not also read, “That ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness”? If you will study these quotations in the light of David’s prayer, you will see how closely the Psalmist trailed the teaching which the Holy Spirit gave a millennium of years afterward.
“Lord Jesus, Thou seest I patiently wait;
Come now, and within me a new heart create;
To those who have sought Thee-Thou never saidst No-
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
V. “CAST ME NOT AWAY FROM THY PRESENCE” (Psa 51:11)
Whatever else may be said of the sinning saint, he suffers much from his sins. (We learn especially in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians that all those born-again are called saints.) We are not of those who would teach that the sinning saint loses sonship, we do teach that he loses fellowship. Let us notice two things emphasized in David’s prayer!
1. David prayed that he might not be cast away from his Lord’s presence. We remember very well how a young woman, a teacher in one of our Southern colleges, the day in which she was saved, said unto us, “The Lord Jesus came into my heart this afternoon just as realistically as you just entered the door of this room.” Then, with a plaintive voice, she added, “Oh, Mr. Neighbour, will He ever leave me?” I remember well the words of my response, “No, Miss Ruby, He will never leave you; but if you sin, He will hide His face.”
There is no doubt of this one thing, sin breaks connections with God. Sin in the believer’s life forces God to withhold His presence, and His smiles. If God gave His benedictions and the blessings of His face to those who disobeyed His Word, or sinned against His commands, God would only encourage us in our evil ways.
2. David prayed that the Holy Spirit might not be taken from him. The Holy Spirit of God indwells all believers, but He infills only those who acknowledge Him, bow to His will, and obey His yoke. He may be with us, and in us, without manifesting Himself to us. No truth is more solemn than this,-We may grieve the Spirit, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption. David felt that he had done this very thing in his sinning.
How may we grieve the Spirit? God has told us. He says we are to put away lying, anger, stealing, corrupt communication, bitterness, wrath, clamor, evil-speaking and malice;-and, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. If you ask where did God say this, we suggest that you read Eph 4:25-32 and see if you do not find it there.
“I want every moment to feel
That Thy Spirit resides in my heart,
That His power is present to cleanse and to heal,
And newness of life to impart.
I want, oh, I want to attain
Some likeness, my Saviour, to Thee!
That longed-for resemblance once more to regain,
Thy comeliness put upon me!
I want to be marked for Thine own,
Thy seal on my forehead to wear;
To receive that “new name” on the mystic white stone,
Which none but Thyself can declare.”
VI. “UPHOLD ME WITH THY FREE SPIRIT” (Psa 51:12, l.c.)
1. We wonder if David had ever felt somewhat self-confident,-if he had not trusted somewhat in himself? You know we are all in danger of this very thing. We remember about the time when David sinned against God by numbering Israel. His sin certainly did not consist in the fact of mere figures. Evidently, in counting his thousands of armed men, David began to glory in himself, and perhaps, he began to trust in men more than in God. It was for this very cause that God cut down the forces under Gideon, from 32,000 to 300.
Peter became self-confident when he said, “Although all shall be offended, yet will not I.” This is the place where many begin to lose fellowship. They think they can hoe their own row, paddle their own canoe, and direct their own steps, in place of abiding in God’s love and trusting in His grace.
The Lord has very plainly said in effect, three things: (1) “Let no man glory in men; (1) “Let no man glory in the flesh”; (3) “Let him that glorieth, glory in the Lord.”
2. We are sure that David turned back to God. He said, “Uphold me with Thy free Spirit.” He felt indeed, that he had no more confidence in himself. He was now lifting up his hands, the hand of his weakness, to God’s hand, the hand of His might. Thus it is that when we recognize our nothingness, we are led to grasp His almightiness. When we realize our impotency, we will look away to His Omnipotency.
He who says, “I am strong,” will never feel led to pray, as David prayed, “Uphold me by Thy free Spirit.”
VII. “DELIVER ME FROM BLOOD GUILTINESS” (Psa 51:14)
Let us recapitulate for a moment. Seven statements sum up David’s prayer of contrition.
1.”Have mercy upon me.”
2.Wash, cleanse, purge me.
3.Make me to hear joy and gladness.
4.Create in me a clean heart.
5.Cast me not away from Thy presence.
6.Uphold me with Thy free Spirit.
7.Deliver me from blood-guiltiness.
There are two things standing clearly before us.
1. There is deliverance even to him who sheds another’s blood. How often do we hear the question, “Can a murderer be saved?” David, from every moral viewpoint, was a murderer in the case of Uriah, and yet he was delivered from the guilt of his brother’s blood.
We believe that even Cain, who slew his brother, was offered a sin-offering, for that offering was crouching at his door.
The Bible plainly says, “The Blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.”
2. There is the restoration of song and testimony to those who have wandered away. David said, “My tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness.” He also said, “My mouth shall shew forth Thy praise.”
As long as David was unclean, he could neither teach transgressors God’s way, nor could he turn sinners from their sins. Now, with sins forgiven, and the Holy Spirit resting once more upon him, he could praise and teach effectually.
Both God and men demand of those who minister in the Word, cleanness of heart and of life. God has said, if a man will purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel sanctified and made meet for the Master’s use. He has also said, Be ye clean, ye that bear the vessels of the Lord.
“Take me, O my Father, take me!
Take me, save me, through Thy Son;
That which Thou wouldst have me, make me
Let Thy will in me be done.
Long from Thee my footsteps straying
Thorny proved the way I trod;
Weary come I now, and praying,
Take me to Thy love, my God!
Fruitless years with grief recalling,
Humbly I confess my sin;
At Thy feet, O Father, falling,
To Thy household take me in.
Freely now to Thee I proffer
This repenting heart of mine;
Freely life and soul I offer,
Gift unworthy love like Thine.”
AN ILLUSTRATION
“WARRANTED TO REMOVE ALL STAINS”
As I opened my door one morning, I found on the steps a handbill advertising a wondrous preparation for the removal of all stains in cloth-“sure to do it-never known to fail.” I read it, and thought of other stains more foul-stains that had struck into the textures of life, and left a sorry mark upon soul and character-guilty stains. Who is without some of these marks?
Oh, what effort is made to keep them out of sight-cover them up-washing “with nitre!” But the spots stick; they will not out. Much management may keep them out of others’ sight, so that the garment of life is made to look tolerably respectable; but alas! they glare out, and bring discomfort and terror. One’s very effort to conceal them often makes them the more prominent,-directs attention to them.
Now what a sale might be made of some mixture that would “take out the stains of sin.” What a market it would find!
Is there anything that will do it?
Yes, a fountain, and “sinners plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.”
Near?
Yes, close at hand; always accessible.
Costly?
“Without money and without price.” None so poor but may wash here and be clean.
Where is it? What is it?
‘The Blood of Jesus Christ, that cleanseth from all sin.” Soul-stained, sin-defiled, will you try it? If you try it, you will find to your joyful satisfaction that it will just meet your need-the very thing you want The voice saith, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” This is what God says.
Won’t you come to that fountain? Come now, and you will sing, “Happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away!”
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
The confession of blood-guiltiness (nationally of the blood of Christ; under which they yet find salvation).
To the chief musician, a psalm of David: when Nathan the prophet had come to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
The fifty-first psalm is a spiritual enigma. Bishop Horsley; nearly a century ago; rightly discerned it to be “the penitential confession of the converted Jews.” He adds: “The subject-matter of this psalm can have no reference to the Hebrew title prefixed thereto; because David, polluted with adultery and murder, could not say; Against Thee only have I sinned; and because the prayer for the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem would have been an inappropriate petition in the days of David. The application of the psalm to restored; repentant Israel, is self-evident. I view this fifty-first psalm as a precomposed form of penitential prayer, afore designed and prepared by Infinite Wisdom for the use of penitent and believing Israel; in the perilous times of the last days.”*
{*Quoted from Coleman’s “Revision of the Book of Psalms,” p. 130.}
While we may safely accept this prophetical view, agreeing, as it does; with the whole character and scope of the book; and suiting perfectly the place in which we find it, the negative side as to the rejection of the Hebrew title is by no means so clear; and certainly perilous in the adoption of a principle which makes a difficulty of this kind a reason for correction of the text of Scripture. Others have, viewing the psalm as really a psalm of David, preferred to suppose the last two verses a “later; perhaps liturgical, addition.”* But what is the value of such speculations as to unnamed authors? It will be said that there is not the same assuredness as to the titles of the psalms that there is as to the psalms themselves; and that the Septuagint has many differences.** Yet we have found so far the Hebrew titles to recommend themselves by their general suitability; sometimes to have most unique significance, as in that to the twenty-second. Here it is true that there is difficulty in tracing the connection between David’s sin with Bathsheba and the prophetic application to Israel in the latter days. Nor does it seem as if there were or could be typical meaning in this awful blot upon the history of the king. But there may be connection of another nature; and there seems no difficulty as to the details of the history, though here “blood-guiltiness” be the only specified sin. The fourth verse, which is objected; really makes none; and as to the closing prayer, can we undertake to say what shall be the limit of a prophet’s vision in predicting the future?
{*See Moll, in Lange.
**Here, however, it agrees with the Hebrew.}
The psalm is enigmatical in more ways than this; nay; it is full of deep meanings which are little more than hinted at. When we consider its latter-day application, this is not so strange. It is in the meanwhile a mystery for faith; but with Christ revealed to us, the key of all mysteries is in our hand.
The psalm is throughout a prayer, -the utterance of a human voice, as that of the last psalm is largely a divine. It answers the challenge there with the confession of sin; but the sin confessed here does not appear a direct answer to the charge before. There are, however, other links of connection between the two psalms: “The same depreciation of the external sacrifice,” says Delitzsch, “that is expressed in Psa 50:1-23 finds utterance in Psa 51:1-19; which supplements the former; according as it extends the spiritualizing of the sacrifice to the offering for sin.” But this spiritualizing needs careful consideration, and to be governed by the inspired canon of Psa 40:7, which we have already considered; “In the volume of the book it is written of Me.” Nor can we admit Cheyne’s assertion that the psalmist holds a different theory of sacrifice from the writer of Psa 1:1-6. In such ways as these, which quite take Scripture from us, how many are following each other, according to the moment’s whim; today! But let us study the psalm.
1. The psalmist begins with the expression of deep conviction, which is not without the accompaniment of a faith that discerns in God Himself that which answers to the need of which the soul has been made conscious. He supplicates grace from Him with whom is the fountain of grace; abundance of compassions and loving-kindness: that He should act therefore in conformity with His own nature and blot out his revoltings. He calls these by a strong name, which stamps the outward acts with their true character as emanating from a spirit of rebellion, -not defective obedience, but revolt. He prays for complete removal of all this as defilement, -to be thoroughly washed from his perversity, and cleansed from his sin. He represents how conscious he is of it: his sin is always before his eyes. Experience of it has brought him where his rebellious spirit has been humbled to realize every word of God as righteous, and the spirit which would judge even man’s almighty Maker is humbled and broken down before Him.
“Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned” is never true in an absolute way of any sin that man can commit. We are too closely united together in the world for this to be possible. If I have another god than Jehovah; does this hurt no one but myself? If I degrade Him by an idol, or take His Name in vain, is there no reflex influence of such acts upon others around me? Who that was truly convicted of sin could say this or believe it? and how above all the man who has need to plead for deliverance from the guilt of blood-shedding!
On the other hand, as Delitzsch well says; “Every relation in which man stands to his fellow-men; and to created things in general, is but the manifest form of his fundamental relationship to God:” at every point at which we touch His creatures; we touch God Himself; every blow struck at them is struck at Him, just as obedience to Him necessitates harmonious relationship to all His creatures. The guilt of every sin is fundamentally the same, revolt against God: this is; in a true sense; the only sin.
2. In the next four verses, we find the extent and character of the salvation needed. Here the psalmist begins with the corruption of origin; as to which Job asks the solemn question, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” This is often pleaded as in large measure an excuse; as we well know; though an awakened conscience cannot satisfy itself with this. Here it comes in to show how great is the salvation needed. Just as in Romans the apostle begins with personal sins and judgment in view of these, not of the fall of Adam; but afterwards; where he enters upon the subject of the completeness of the remedy, then he begins with Adam and the corruption of our nature (Rom 5:12; sq.). So here we shall find it: “Behold,” says David, “in perversity was I born,” -with a moral twist “and in sin did my mother conceive me” -not inside Paradise, but outside. Thus sin is a leprosy, a communicable disease; -so to speak, in the blood; and needing a remedy of corresponding energy to meet it. God turns it to corresponding blessing. The “inward parts” are the reins, the kidneys; -hidden in the centre of the body and enveloped in fat, -the very type of excretory organs; for this is their whole function. In them we have going on continually the purification of the blood from what; if retained, would destroy life. Their special relation is to the processes of nutrition and disassimilation; and thus their work presents to us the plainest analogy to that work of moral discrimination and rejection of the evil which goes on under the oversight of the conscience in the quiet chambers of meditation within the inner man. There God desires “truth” or steadfast fidelity; and in the hidden part makes us to know “wisdom” (chokhma), the word used being one “applied to the discrimination of good and evil” (Wilson).
Thus we find how in God’s sovereignty over all things, He turns this close and necessary acquaintance with evil in the innermost recesses of our being into an exercising of our spiritual senses to discern and separate it from that which is of God and good (Heb 5:14). Would that we knew better this “exercise” which would make us adepts in this work of spiritual discrimination! Here the new nature begins to manifest itself in the quickening of the conscience as the heart is turned to God. Blessed sight, the tender sensitiveness of one new born, thus searched out and exercised, even though yet the gospel be not known so as to give rest before God! and that is the condition here.
But we come now to the gospel, although in that veiled way in which the Old Testament of necessity so largely spoke, and still, as all through this psalm, in the language of prayer for the blessing; not yet as realizing it. “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Here nothing is mentioned that had real power to cleanse, even in the Mosaic ritual! The hyssop was of course only that by which the sprinkling that really cleansed was effected. It was used to sprinkle the passover blood upon the doorposts (Exo 12:22). It was that which, along with cedar and scarlet, was dipped with the living bird in the blood of its fellow, which then was sprinkled upon the leper; to cleanse him (Lev 14:6; Lev 7:1-38). It was used in the case of one defiled with the dead to sprinkle the water of purification upon him (Num 19:18). There is no other use of hyssop given us in the Old Testament; and to one of these it must refer.
We can have little difficulty in deciding which is here to be understood. The passover is out of the question. Besides its relation to one special feast, which would hardly make it appropriate to an individual case like this, the blood of the paschal lamb was not sprinkled upon the person; but on the door-posts of the houses within which the feast was being kept. Of the two other occasions, the sprinkling upon the leper might seem to be most appropriate to the case of one so deeply affected with sin; and in a state so naturally incurable; as the fifth verse has shown. In the case of the leper; however, the hyssop has no distinct relation to the cleansing: it is simply dipped in the blood, along with the cedar and scarlet and the living bird, and then it is said only that “he” -the priest -“shall sprinkle.” On the contrary, in the ordinance of the red heifer (Num 19:1-22) the hyssop comes again, as at the passover; into unmistakable prominence as the means of sprinkling the blood; while, in contrast with the passover; this is sprinkled upon the person; to cleanse him. Thus the reference in the psalm would naturally be to this. Thus defilement with the dead is expressly what is before us here; while the deliverance sought from blood-guiltiness (in the fourteenth verse) shows us how far beyond ordinary defilement the case here goes. The finger; as it were; points in a certain direction to show us what is in question, but there is still an enigma to be solved: how can the law of the red heifer apply? was it ever ordained for cleansing from. the guilt of blood-shedding? The only answer that can be given is necessarily in the negative.
The truth is that the law necessarily fails to meet the case. No sacrifice was, or could be, ordained to put away the guilt of murder.* The soul was cast for this on the sovereign mercy of God alone. The types here, as just now said; might point in a certain direction, but that was all. The one supreme Sacrifice, to be offered by Him of whom it was all “written in the volume of the book;” alone answers all questions; sets the conscience at rest; purging the soul “to serve the living and true God.” Hence the failure of all typical sacrifices in such a case as this is full of instruction and blessing. The sinner here was brought face to face and left alone with God; the types as fingers pointing to that which would do what they could not do -expressly disclaiming virtue to be in them.
{*See the notes on the sin-offering, Lev 4:1-35.}
So the psalmist is beyond law here: it is from God and not from man must come the purging; and yet with a plain reference to the law also; which sends us to it for instruction. Thus viewed, the type of the red heifer, with its confessed incompetency to give us more than the shadow -“not the very image” -may yet help us to find the very image.”
In this way another apparent failure must be carefully considered. The ordinance of the red heifer was for the restoration; simply, of a defiled person. It does not in any way speak of the first bringing of a soul to God. But the case here, as we are viewing it, is that of souls brought for the first time to God; and these two things -the salvation of a sinner and the restoration of a saint -are; of course; very different things: how are we to reconcile this difference? or what are we to learn by it?
As reinforcing the reference to the type, the fact of the sin in question being David’s sin is very significant and helpful. The very subject of the psalm then is, after all, the failure and restoration of a saint: for, spite of the enormity of his offence, no one would doubt David to have been this. The type referred to becomes therefore really in harmony with the theme of the psalm.
But does it not lead us away from the application we have made of it? If it apply to Israel in the last days and their confession of the awful murder of the Son of God. sent to them; is not this the time of their conversion to God and being brought into a new place of blessing, and not their restoration as saints to a state of blessing enjoyed before? How can “Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation” be a suited prayer in their mouth?
Consider it again, and this inconsistency will disappear. For, while of that generation it will undoubtedly be true that they will be then for the first time brought to God; -theirs will be in every respect just the salvation of sinners; -yet; if we remember that this is Israel seeking the Lord; we shall realize that, as to the nation it is in fact a case of restoration. Thus the two things are not in this case contradictory to one another. As Israel’s sin, the rejection of their Messiah looks back to their national history.
Another harmony develops from this view of the type. The ordinance of the red heifer provided for the cleansing of one defiled with the dead; not a new offering, not the shedding of blood afresh, but recurrence to an offering before offered; -as far as we have any knowledge; once for all offered. How striking a correspondence is here between the type in question and Israel in the end of her long wilderness journey, cleansed by an offering long before offered! in fact; by that very death on its divine side, of which on its human side they were the responsible and guilty instruments! Thus we find in this application of the water of purification the same recognition of a lapse of time between the offering and its effect in cleansing as we find in the type of the day of atonement and its ordinance of the two goats (Lev 16:1-34, notes).
It is surely the voice of Israel, then, that is heard in the cry, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.” The hyssop itself may speak of Christ as man in the lowest place. It is used thus in contrast with the cedar (1Ki 4:33) as the type of littleness; -“the hyssop that groweth out of the wall,” -while, as with the shittah-tree (or acacia), it grows in the wilderness, as a “root out of a dry ground,” -growing indeed in the clefts of the rock and the driest of places. If it be a caper; as Royle and Tristram agree; then, like the shittim-wood; it has the thorns of the curse upon it. Contrariwise, its name is perhaps derived from a word which means “to shine.” One would expect that the hyssop in this connection should give us some memorials of the Lord: “purge me with hyssop; and I shall be clean.” Then how blessed to be said by a poor sinner; and yet it is only confidence in God;s work being; as it must be; well done: “wash me; and I shall be whiter than snow.”
Gospel this is, and he realizes it as such: “make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice.” It is only prayer as yet however; but a divinely taught prayer surely. We too; if the gospel be “good news;” ought to have the joy of the gospel; and healthful; medicinal it is; even for crushed bones. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”
But we pass on to look more deeply at this inner work.
3. The third section, as we have learned to expect; leads us into the sanctuary; and naturally with this speaks of the sanctification needed for the presence of God. But in the first verse we are reminded that this roots itself in, and builds itself up by, the knowledge of complete acceptance. “Hide Thy face from my sins,” he says; “and blot out all my perversities.” He must have no cloud upon that glorious Face, into which he contemplates looking. For this is the life of holiness itself, the manifestation of God to the soul, the entrancing joy of which the apostle spoke: “whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God” (2Co 5:13). But this would be impossible if in that holy Presence a single stain of sin were discoverable. Here this thought is expressed only negatively and as prayer: but he knows well no spot must be found. The Christian finds it realized in positive “acceptance in the Beloved,” all the value of Christ being accounted to him. Not even the thought of a “Face hidden” is worthy of this. The Face beams with radiant appreciation of Him in whom we are represented, and find unchanging, unchangeable perfection. No cloud can come over this sky, save as unbelief darkens it. The veil being rent that so long prevented it; now; says the apostle, “let us draw nigh.”
“Let us draw nigh”! what, need of exhortation? Here is One to know whom is to have all things, -to be without whom is the “outer darkness” of hell! God, Creator, Preserver, Redeemer of men, -Light, Life, Love; -revealed in Christ; His love-gift to us, -opens to us the Sanctuary of His Presence. It is not merely possible to draw nigh; there where Moses could not, and seraphs veil their faces; but God has brought us in, -giving us an abiding-place in the Holiest of all; free right of citizenship in the New Jerusalem of God. Here it is lawful to covet and possess, as far as faith can penetrate, -God’s word being the inventory of all that which He has given us richly to enjoy; His Spirit in us “searching the deep things of God:” so that what “eye hath not seen; nor ear heard, nor hath it entered (naturally) into the heart of man,” He “hath revealed unto us by His Spirit;” “that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” (1Co 2:1-16.) After all this, do we need exhortation to possess ourselves of it; or to draw near to Him who had drawn near to us?
What hinders us? What hinders any one of us? Nothing, let us speak it plainly, but lack of heart; and unbelief that goes with this, -goes before it, and springs from it as well. “The vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver unto one that is learned; saying; Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed; and the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying; Read this; I pray thee; and he saith, I am not learned.” (Isa 29:11; Isa 12:1-6.)
But we have got beyond our psalm. The psalmist realizes at least, as has been said, that God’s face -God Himself -is his one necessity; and that one sin discerned by the holy Eye would be impossible for Him to go on with. Does he not realize something of what the ashes of the sin-offering mean, by which just now he has been in reality asking to be purged? We, at least, know this well. But along with the need of sacrifice, there is need of an initial work also; which none but God can effect; -which needs nothing less than the power of the Creator: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” And we have learned that we are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works; which God hath before prepared, that we should walk in them” (Eph 1:10). He does not speak formally of the new birth; nor was this clearly known until New Testament times; but he despairs of any effectual change by any effort of his own; he; like the apostle; with a groan of anguish turns from an impractical “body of death,” to find a Deliverer outside himself altogether. To possess a “clean heart,” for such as he has discovered himself to be; God must “create a creation;” and for the psalmist as for us, the light of heaven must be made to break out in self-revealing, God-revealing power; over the yeasty confusion of the barren and restless deep. O blessed and beauteous Light of heaven; though Thou showest us but the fury of the untamed swell of passion and unrest! Even so communion has begun, if fitfully, with God. The soul begins to side with Him, even against itself; and there, I suppose, a “clean heart” has begun. But a “steadfast [or fixed] spirit” goes beyond this, just in the removal of that fitfulness: the heart being at rest for communion as the calm lake mirrors heaven. But we miss here the Christian how of this: the need is felt, but the manner of accomplishment is not known.
The next verse shows the believer, while it shows also the conflict with doubt. He prays not to be cast away from the divine presence. He has known it; but knows not the conditions of its permanence. Many Christians do not know them today. So, too, he prays, “Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me”; and many would be in agony over this. There is no need to think of anything special to the king of Israel. To the whole work of God in the soul the Holy Spirit was always necessary; in every saint of every time. The Spirit of God as indwelling in the Christian; the Spirit of adoption by which we cry; Abba, Father, and the baptism of the Spirit by which the body of Christ is formed; -these are distinctive blessings of the dispensation to which we belong (Joh 14:16-17; Gal 4:1-6; Act 1:5; 1Co 12:13). The Spirit of God Himself could teach David such a prayer as this: for us it would be unbelief to utter it; for by the Spirit we are sealed unto the day of redemption (Eph 4:30).
But how do we value blessings so inestimable as these? The breathing after God Himself, so characteristic as it is of the Book of Psalms, may well put to shame the coldness of our hearts in view of it. Where are the souls that pant and long after the presence of God as do these men of another and darker time? We may not use some of their prayers, and can thank God we do not: yes; but do we breathe their longings? Or shall we give men to think that the increase of knowledge and the apprehension of grace chill the heart; and that the more abundantly God has shown us love; the less He is to be loved?
Again the psalmist cries:
“Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and let a willing spirit sustain me.” For heaviness of heart enfeebles both walk and work: the joy of the Lord gives strength and courage. We may not make light of emotion. Our care is to be that it be justified with knowledge and connected with practical result. “The fruit of the Spirit is love; joy, peace” (Gal 5:22); but then “long-suffering; gentleness; goodness, meekness; temperance;” follow after these and sustain them.
So too the practical result is promised here: “I will teach revolters Thy ways; and sinners shall return unto Thee.” Israel in fact will lead the nations in obedience. Israel shall become Jezreel, “the seed of God.” “And I will sow her to Me in the earth;” says the Lord God (Hos 2:23).
4. The theme of the second part of the previous psalm now comes up again; but from another side. The failure of the sacrifices is now proclaimed by the lips of man, the sinner who has found them fail in his own need, and realizes the divine meaning of this failure. The psalmist returns to the thought of his own sin, which he now names distinctly, and from the guilt of which God alone can be the deliverer. As the God of his salvation, his tongue shall sing of His righteousness. This seems too evangelic, if we take it in the Pauline sense of God’s righteousness revealed in the gospel, a note of which; however, we have heard in the twenty-second psalm. But to measure the depth of an inspired statement by the intelligence (real or supposed) of the writer, would be a folly that would really leave God out of His Word, and make the meaning of it often an impractical attainment for us. He has in the beginning of the psalm been pleading for mercy according to the known compassion of God, that is, in consistency with His own character. This then is already the “righteousness,” of which when delivered he will sing; and thus the righteousness spoken of is as the God of his salvation. The cross is the full explanation of this, and that, as we have seen, is in the psalm also, though veiled under the type referred to in it. He then speaks again of the testimony which in fact restored Israel will render to His praise, when their dumb lips shall be opened.
Now comes the disclaiming of legal sacrifices. “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou delightest not in burnt-offering.” In fact, as has been already said, none could be prescribed for sin like this, a thing which limits very much therefore the absoluteness of this disclaimer. Here the “sacrifices of God” could only be “a broken spirit!” Not as if this were the true antitype of the legal offerings, a supposition of which there has been given explicit denial in the words of Christ Himself by His Spirit in the fortieth psalm: “In the volume of the book it is written of ME.” Nor can a broken spirit be the justification of God’s grace in salvation, though it may define the condition morally necessary to the sinner’s acceptance. And this is the only possible thought here. That would not be a broken spirit which could estimate itself as having atoning value in the sight of God. It is the very confession of sin and worthlessness which makes it possible for Him to come in in mercy; and in
this way indeed to come to God may have attaching to it all the certainty which the bringing of sacrifice ensured in those cases in which they were prescribed. In this comparison with the legal sacrifices, the failed creature taking his place must necessarily, with God, far outweigh the ritual service, and in fact permit God to come in in his behalf. He will act according to His heart, and we can trust His heart. The case is in His hand; and divine wisdom will be able to conserve divine righteousness in meeting so desperate a condition. Christ is the answer of wisdom as to this: and now it can indeed be said: “a broken and crushed heart” -so it literally reads -“O God, Thou wilt not despise.”
5. In the last section, it is openly Zion’s cause that is pleaded: the place in which sovereign grace will act toward Israel, and therefore the place of God’s eternal rest. “Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion: Thou shalt build the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt Thou be pleased with sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt-offerings and whole burnt-offerings: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.”
The cessation of animal sacrifices is not implied then in what has gone before; and according to Ezekiel they will be offered even in millennial days. (Eze 43:18-27, Eze 45:15-25.) If this is not according to our thoughts, we must always be ready to correct our thoughts by Scripture. The millennial has not the perfection of the eternal condition; and the senses will be again appealed to in a way that does not accord with the present dispensation of faith. Of this there are many examples; and there is no surer way of getting into confusion in our thoughts than by judging of what is suited to one dispensation by the analogies of another. The numerical structure seems here indeed to emphasize the confirmation of sacrifice, as before it did its failure; and both things are suited, each in its place. Their retention and revival are, no doubt, God’s witness to the world of His way of acceptance and blessing ever, at which unbelief has so largely scoffed. As the carcases of the enemies (Isa 66:1-24) in their doom before men’s eyes will be the open testimony to the judgment of hell for the ungodly, -of that Gehenna of which it has already furnished the illustrative images, -and as the city of God will be the perpetual witness of the joys of the blessed, -so it will be good in the Lord’s sight to have this commemorative witness of the way by which the joy of His favor can be realized or attained.
Thus these sacrifices will be now “sacrifices of righteousness,” because offered with a true heart and with hands “washed in innocency,” as David has elsewhere expressed it (Psa 26:6). And the whole tenor of these closing verses confirms the prophetic character of the psalm as the national confession which will be the necessary pre-requisite for national blessing. This also makes clear the connection with the previous psalm, which is certainly a divine challenge of the nation and of the thought that sacrifices without righteousness could be acceptable to God. The two psalms together give us the double controversy between Israel and the Lord, of which the second part of Isaiah (the second Isaiah of the rationalizing critics) treats at large -the controversy as to the law and as to Christ; of the Old Testament and of the New. One might imagine, from the way that these are presented here, that they would be questions which would be raised with restored Israel in this same order, and that here they have been in the presence of the true Joseph, who has manifested Himself to His brethren; but it may be also that the order is only grounded on the history, and not itself to be thud fulfilled in the history of the future.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Psa 51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God O thou, who art the supreme Lawgiver, Governor, and Judge of the world, whom I have most highly offended many ways, and, therefore, may most justly be condemned to suffer the effects of thy severest displeasure; I cast myself down before thee, and humbly supplicate for mercy. O pity, help, and answer me in the desires I am now about to spread before thee; according to thy loving- kindness Thy known clemency and infinite compassions. For I pretend to no merit: I know my desert is everlasting destruction of body and soul; but I humbly implore the interposition of thy free grace and unmerited goodness. According to the multitude of thy tender mercies Hebrew, , rachameicha, thy bowels of mercies, yearning over thy fallen, sinful, and miserable creatures. Thy mercies are infinite, and, therefore, sufficient for my relief: and such mercies, indeed, do I now need. How reviving, says Chandler, is the belief and consideration of these abundant and tender compassions of God, to one in Davids circumstances; whose mind laboured under the burden of the most heinous, complicated guilt, and the fear of the divine displeasure and vengeance! Blot out , mechee, deleto, absterge, destroy, wipe away, my transgressions That is, entirely and absolutely forgive them; so that no part of the guilt I have contracted may remain, and the punishment of it may be wholly remitted. The word properly signifies to wipe out, or to wipe any thing absolutely clean, as a person wipes a dish: see 2Ki 21:13. Blot out my transgressions As a debt is blotted or crossed out of the book, when either the debtor has paid it, or the creditor has remitted it; wipe them out That they may not appear to demand judgment against me, nor stare me in the face to my confusion and terror. Give me peace with thee, by turning away thine anger from me, and taking me again into thy favour; and give me peace in my own conscience, by assuring me thou hast done so.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The title of this psalm, supported by the whole weight of rabbinical authority, and by the LXX, refers it to the repentance and recovery of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. This application of the psalm has been disputed by some modern critics and commentators, chiefly because they think Psa 51:4; Psa 51:18-19, are not applicable to Davids complicated sin, and to the existing state of Jerusalem, whose walls were not then cast down. But this is a narrow view of the subject that overlooks the prophetic spirit which swelled the language and enlarged the sentiments of the psalmist. In his own sin David traced the workings of original corruption in all mankind, producing universal enmity and revolt against God. In his fall, the consequence of his sin, he traced the ruin of his people, who were all contaminated with the like corruption; and in his recovery he saw the building again of the walls of Jerusalem. There appears to be no more reason for referring the dates of this and a number of other psalms to the times of the Babylonish Captivity, merely because the psalmist, in the spirit of prophecy, associates himself with the captives, describes their circumstances and gives utterance to their griefs; than there would be to refer them to Christ and his apostles, because the psalmist saw HIS glory, and described his sufferings. With the exception of the three verses abovementioned, the whole psalm is most admirably adapted to the case and circumstances of David, as referred to in the title; and those who would disturb this application know of no other person, or case, to which it can apply.
Psa 51:3. I acknowledge my transgression, which, alas, I had concealed, and covered with crimes worse than the sin itself.
Psa 51:4. Against thee, thee only have I sinned. David, as king, was not accountable to man. His subjects had no authority to judge and punish his crimes; but he feared the judgment of God; and as He alone had power to punish, he regarded him as the only offended party. In this case the claims of others centered in the great Judge of all.
Psa 51:7. Purge me with hyssop. A bunch of hyssop dipped in sacrificial blood was usually employed in sprinkling the unclean, and almost all things under the law were thus purified with blood. Lev 14:6. Num 19:18. The leaves of hyssop and other bitter herbs were also eaten with the paschal lamb, to indicate the bitterness of sin and its punishment. Thus David prays to be cleansed by the blood of sprinkling, and like the leper to be washed in the laver of renewing and regenerating grace.
Psa 51:14. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness. Countless murders having of late years been committed in Ireland, we may note that the salvation of a murderer has great difficulties. The papist priest, who talks of absolution for this crime is a blasphemer, a destroyer of mens souls. The pardons that men bestow are ecclesiastical only, and avail no farther than to restore a penitent to the peace of the church. At the same time no one should despair of final mercy. Though the assassin had no mercy on his victim; though he allowed him no time for repentance; though he cannot ask his pardon now, yet who would limit the Holy One? David had a troubled conscience for Uriahs blood to the end of life. According to Josephus, he thought the bloody ghost of this valiant officer attended him. Herod felt the same, when he said, on hearing of Jesus, This is John the Baptist, whom I beheaded: he is risen from the dead.
Psa 51:18. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion, where the ark of God now lodged. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem, where David was carrying on great works of enlargement, and raising fortifications.
REFLECTIONS.
The tragic history of Davids fall and the admirable fruits of his repentance, have been already considered. 2 Samuel 12. We are here called to trace the piercing sentiments of his inward grief. He was enjoying his palace in health and peace. Bathsheba had just brought forth a son, which seemed to promise him happiness and joy, and Israel a king, though the fruit of guilt. But Nathan entered with a sorrowful countenance, and having excited the indignation of the king by the parable of the ewe-lamb, pierced him with the sword of the SpiritThou art the man. The psalm before us is a sublime copy of grief, and of anguish in the extreme. The royal penitents first appeal was to mercy; yea, to the multitude of mercies for the erasure of all his sins. Sacrifices and burnt-offerings he did not dare to name; they were too cheap to procure a pardon of that extent; nor had the law appointed any sacrifice but death for crimes so enormous. Then loathing himself because of the depths and complicated nature of his defilement, he implored a thorough washing in the laver of mercy. In seeking this forgiving and sanctifying grace, he named no extenuating circumstance, but acknowledged his transgression. The whole of his ingratitude, of his impetuous passion which he had cherished, instead of suppressing, and all the consequent artifice and crimes to cover his sin; all these were ever before his eyes, for his repentance was lasting as life. In all his future afflictions and troubles this sin came foremost to his mind. Be instructed then, oh my soul, and touch not, taste not, the unclean thing. Lend neither ear nor eye to an evil propensity.
David, instead of extenuating, painted his crime in the deepest tints of crimson and scarlet. Against thee, and thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight. The ruin and destruction of Uriah, the wounds inflicted on the church, and the occasion given to the infidels to blaspheme, are nothing when compared with what I have done in despising thy mercy, daring thy justice, and trampling on thy law. Such is the language of true repentance: and if the wicked were but impressed with these sentiments, their repentance would terminate in genuine conversion. The prodigal comparatively would forget the greatness of his crimes against his parents, being wholly absorbed in that weightier thought, I have sinned against heaven.
David, to perfect the knowledge of his sin, traced it back to its source. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. His birth had all the marks of outward purity and honour which can adorn human nature. His parents were irreproachable, and many of his ancestors were distinguished by heroic acts of faith and virtue; he therefore here speaks only of original sin, then an article of universal belief. This sin is our birth-fault, it is the law in the members, the source of every sin. It is the sin which depraved Adams nature, of whose substance we are all conceived. Our will was in his will, and our consent was in his consent. It is the sin which has occasioned death to reign over all; yea over infants, who in a peculiar sense have not sinned after the likeness of Adams transgression.
David farther heightened his sin by a striking contrast with the purity of God. He had said, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. He now says, Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts; but my sin is all gross wickedness, dissimulation, and hypocrisy.
He therefore prays for purity: Purge me with hyssop, with the blood of the covenant, and the bitters of paternal correction. I loathe my foul leprosy, which shuts me out from thee, and thy people. He also entreated the Lord to show him mercy from his peculiar misery and distress. He laid prostrate as a criminal with broken bones; he was overwhelmed with grief and gloom, and entreated for joy and gladness. Hence by a fine sentiment he besought the Lord to hide his face from the singularly provoking circumstances of his crime, while as a father, more willing to cover than expose the follies of a penitent child, he blotted out the enormous debt of all his sins.
But a plenary pardon was only half his request. He solicited purity, and purity without a stain. Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew in me a right spirit, a constant, or a faithful mind. Thus pardon and purity, justification and sanctification, are to be asked at once, being everywhere joined in the grand promises of the new covenant. It is a small glory for a man to boast that his body and his character are free from gross sins, while his mind secretly feasts on impurity. We must pray that sin may not merely be cropped, but wholly eradicated, and the whole man, body, soul, and spirit preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the constant application of the Redeemers merits to keep us clean, are the surest preservatives from future sins.
As he valued purity above all price, so he deprecated being forsaken above all evils. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. How much this state is to be dreaded, will appear from twenty passages in the sacred writings. Gen 4:16. 2Ki 24:20. Jer 7:15; Jer 52:3. Joh 15:2.
Long and painfully wearied with grief, he asked next the joy of Gods salvation, and the wonted influx of his free and noble spirit of adoption, that he might once more teach transgressors his way. This cannot be understood of temporal joy, as we too often understand the psalms; for David was now in no temporal trouble. It was a joy flowing purely from the light of Gods countenance, and the comforts of his grace.
But as though he had asked far too much, and prayed in language too assuming for so great a sinner, his abased mind returned again to his grief, and his tears flowed anew. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, oh God. Thus he brings again to the Lord, who despised hecatombs of burnt-offerings, the pleasing sacrifices of a broken spirit and a contrite heart. And as though his sin had infected the whole land, and obstructed, as in Achans case, the course of Zions blessings, he besought the Lord to bless his people; and graciously to accept their daily burnt-offerings presented on his altar.
These are Davids sentiments after his sin; this is the washing and healing of his deep wounds; this is the way in which he rose to virtue after vice, and glory after crimes. He married the insulted woman, and repaired his fault to the utmost of his power. May the christian learn to keep free from crimes; and may the wicked who imitate him in sin, imitate him in repentance, and in all its genuine fruits. Forget not, oh base backslider, this most instructive portrait of a sinners return to God.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
LI. A Penitential Psalm.
Psa 51:1-12. Prayer for pardon and inward renewal.
Psa 51:13-17. A promise to proclaim Gods mercy and bring sinners back to Him.
Psa 51:18 f. Prayer for the restoration of Jerusalem, which will make sacrifice possible and popular once more.
The Ps. was not written by David, and still less by David after his double sin of murder and adultery. How could David have said, Against thee, thee only, have I sinned? Besides, the Ps. shows the influence of exilic and post-exilic literature. The mention of the Holy Spirit occurs here only and Isa 63:10 in the so-called Third Isaiah. Again the conception of a new heart is found here and also in Eze 11:19; Eze 36:26.
It has been held by many scholars that it is the nation or church of Israel which speaks. This opinion finds some argument in its support from the missionary activity which is to follow the Psalmists pardon, and which reminds one of the Second Isaiah. But the words Against thee only have I sinned, are nearly as unsuitable in the mouth of collective Israel as they would be in the mouth of David. They have been taken to mean that Israel had indeed been unfaithful to its God but had done no harm to other nations, e.g. the Babylonians. What evil could Israel do the mighty power of Babylon, and what scruple would Israel have felt on such a point of international morality? Nor, again, could Israel, in spite of Eze 16:3, confess that it was conceived in sin. True, the prayer for the rebuilding of Jerusalem fits in with national rather than individual pardon, but probably Psa 51:18 f. is a liturgical addition. On the whole, therefore, we may assign the Ps. to one who in Persian or Greek times had sinned against his God by undue compliance with foreign worship, but was otherwise blameless.
Psa 51:1-12. The Psalmist acknowledges his sin in order that Gods justice in punishing him may be clearly seen. He comes, like all men, of a sinful stock. The reference is to actual and not to original sin. True, he inherited sinful tendencies, but this is quite a different thing from inheriting guilt.
Psa 51:6. inward part: of doubtful meaning.
Psa 51:7. Hyssop, a plant of uncertain identification (Exo 12:22*), was used in purification of a leper and of one who had touched a corpse (Num 19:6*).
Psa 51:8. joy and gladness are the signs that God has forgiven the suppliant.
Psa 51:10. Render steadfast spirit (mg.), and in Psa 51:12 a willing spirit (mg.). The Holy Spirit in Isaiah 63 leads the people through the wilderness and directs them by the prophetic revelation of Moses; so also it admits the Psalmist to Gods presence, i.e. the Temple worship.
Psa 51:13-17. Psa 51:14. bloodguiltiness has been understood of Uriahs murder by David. That, however, was a sin already done; prayer could then only avert the consequences of the murder, and the Heb. dmm (blood-guiltiness) never has the sense of punishment for homicide. It is, however, not unlikely that the word here used was misunderstood, and led to the account of the psalms origin given in the title. It is best then to take the word as meaning Save me from the shedding of my blood, from death brought upon me by God or man. The word dmm need not mean actual bloodshed (cf. Psa 30:9): it may refer to death by disease which God sends.
Psa 51:16. The poet does not repudiate legal sacrifice. But God, he thinks, does not accept sacrifice as in itself a proof of piety: a broken spirit is the sacrifice which He loves.
Psa 51:18 f. is from the hand of one who did not approve the low estimate of sacrifices just given. God did not indeed allow them in the evil time when altars and temples were gone, but these being restored, sacrifices will be restored also.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
PSALM 51
The experiences of a repentant soul, anticipating the confession of sin by the godly Jewish remnant in the last days, when they humble themselves before God for the rejection and murder of Christ (v. 14).
Psalm 49 warns us against the worldly man that trusts in his riches. Psalm 50 rebukes the religious man who trusts in the outward forms of religion, such as sacrifices and burnt offerings. Psalm 51 presents the repentant man who, acknowledging that sacrifices and burnt offerings are of no avail (v. 16), humbles himself before God and looks to the mercy of God for cleansing.
(vv. 1-3) The psalm opens with a repentant man appealing to the grace and loving-kindness of God. He sees that with God there is an abundance (JND) of tender mercies, and therefore God’s mercy is greater than his sin. So the prodigal in the parable can say: How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare.
In the light of the grace of God, the repentant man can acknowledge his transgressions and sin, and look to God to blot out his sins from before God’s face, and cleanse him from the sin that is ever before him.
(v. 4) However much we may sin against man, all sin is against God. The repentant man has a deep conviction of the true character of sin as against God, and in the sight of God. Sin is a defiance of God, and being so, God will be justified in judging the sinner.
(vv. 5-6) Furthermore, the sin is traced to its origin and found to consist, not simply in sinful acts, but in a sinful nature. Hence the sinner requires not only cleansing from actual sins, but a new nature in the inward parts.
(vv. 7-8) Having acknowledged his sin, the repentant man looks to God to cleanse him with hyssop. The reference is to the cleansing of the leper, and those who had defiled themselves by contact with a dead body. The hyssop was dipped in blood, which was then sprinkled on the person to be cleansed. It surely speaks of the righteous ground on which God can cleanse – the precious blood of Christ. Being cleansed, the soul would be restored to joy and gladness.
(vv. 9-13) Furthermore, there is the desire, not only that the repentant sinner may be cleansed, but that God Himself will no longer see his sins, and further, that the cleansing may not only be outward, but inward, so that he may have a clean heart and a right spirit. Thus suited for God’s presence, and filled with the Spirit, he would be led again into the joy of salvation. Sustained by a willing spirit (JND), in contrast to his past sin in defiance of God, the repentant sinner, now restored, would be able to teach others in the ways of God so that sinners would be turned to God.
(vv. 14-15) Having sought cleansing from his own sins, the psalmist seeks deliverance from the blood-guiltiness of the nation, guilty of the blood of their own Messiah (Mat 27:25). Then indeed he would sing of the righteousness of God, expressed as we know in the death of Christ. The declaration of the righteousness of God will lead to the praise of the Lord.
(vv. 16-17) The soul, having profited by the witness of God in Psalm 50, now disclaims all confidence in legal sacrifices. It is realized that if the soul looks to the grace of God for cleansing, the only right condition for being cleansed, is a broken spirit and a contrite heart. Such, God will not despise.
(vv. 18-19) The repentance of the remnant of the Jews, anticipated in the psalm, prepares the way for the restoration of Zion, according to God’s good pleasure. Then, indeed, God will take pleasure in sacrifices offered, not with the legal thought of obtaining blessing, but as the witness of the ground on which the nation is blessed (cp. Eze 43:18; Eze 43:27; Eze 45:15-25).
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
51:1 [To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet {a} came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.] Have mercy upon me, O God, {b} according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
(a) To reprove him, because he had committed horrible sins, and lain in the same without repentance more then a whole year.
(b) As his sins were many and great, so he requires that God would give him the feeling of his excellent and abundant mercies.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Psalms 51
In this penitential individual lament psalm (cf. Psalms 6, 32, 38, 102, 130, , 143) David confessed the sins he committed against Bathsheba and Uriah. It is a model of confession that has become popular with God’s people. Since we all sin so often and need to confess frequently, this psalm is a help and comfort to us all.
Psalms 32 proposed the need to confess sin, and Psa 51:5 of that poem is a brief statement of confession. But Psalms 51 moves closer to "the center of the crisis of alienation" [Note: Brueggemann, p. 98.] and gives us a model of confession. In it, David did not utter one word of excuse for the sins he had committed, nor did he seek to tone down the gravity of his offenses or blame others for what he had done. [Note: Armerding, p. 96.]
The title explains the situation out of which this psalm arose (2 Samuel 11).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. Prayer for gracious cleansing 51:1-2
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
David appealed to God (Elohim) to cleanse him because of His loyal love and compassion. This is the first of David’s psalms in which he addressed the Lord as Elohim, possibly reflecting the distance he felt from God as Yahweh. [Note: Merrill, "Psalms," p. 433.] He knew he did not deserve the Lord’s forgiveness nor could he earn it. Divine pardon comes to sinners by His grace alone. He asked God to blot out the record of his transgressions, namely, sins that go beyond the limits that God has established for conduct.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 51:1-19
THE main grounds on which the Davidic authorship of this psalm is denied are four. First, it is alleged that its conceptions of sin and penitence are in advance of his stage of religious development; or, as Cheyene puts it, “David could not have had these ideas” (“Aids to Dev. Study of Crit.,” 166). The impossibility depends on theory which is not yet so established as to be confidently used to settle questions of date. Again, the psalmists wail, “Against Thee only have I sinned,” is said to be conclusive proof that the wrong done to Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah cannot be referred to. But is not God the correlative of sin, and may not the same act be qualified in one aspect as a crime and in another as a sin, bearing in the latter character exclusive relation to God? The prayer in Psa 51:18 is the ground of a third objection to the Davidic authorship. Certainly it is hopeless to attempt to, explain “Build the walls of Jerusalem” as Davids prayer. But the opinion held by both advocates and opponents of Davids authorship, that Psa 51:18-19 are a later liturgical addition, removes this difficulty. Another ground on which the psalm is brought down to a late date is the resemblances in it to Isa 40:1-31; Isa 41:1-29; Isa 42:1-25; Isa 43:1-28; Isa 44:1-28; Isa 45:1-25; Isa 46:1-13, which are taken to be echoes of the prophetic words. The resemblances are undoubted; the assumption that. the psalmist is the copyist is not.
The personified nation is supposed by most modern authorities to be the speaker; and the date is sometimes taken to be the Restoration period, before the rebuilding of the walls by Nehemiah (Cheyne, “Orig. of Psalt.,” 162); by others, the time of the Babylonish exile; and, as usual, by some, the Maccabean epoch. It puts considerable strain upon the theory of personification to believe that these confessions of personal sin, and longing cries for a clean heart, which so many generations have felt to fit their most secret experiences, were not the wailings of a soul which had learned the burden of individuality, by consciousness of sin, and by realisation of the awful solitude of its relation to God. There are also expressions in the psalm which seem to clog the supposition that the speaker is the nation with great difficulties-e.g., the reference to birth in Psa 51:5, the prayer for inward truth in Psa 51:6, and for a clean heart in Psa 51:10. Baethgen acknowledges that the two latter only receive their full meaning when applied to an individual. He quotes Olshausen, a defender of the national reference, who really admits the force of the objection to it, raised on the ground of these expressions, while he seeks to parry it by saying that “it is not unnatural that the poet, speaking in the singular, should, although he writes for the congregation, bring in occasional expressions here and there which do not fit the community so well as they do each individual in it.” The acknowledgment is valuable; the attempt to turn its edge may be left to the readers judgment.
In Psa 51:1-9 the psalmists cry is chiefly for pardon; in Psa 51:10-12 he prays chiefly for purity; in Psa 51:13-17 he vows grateful service. Psa 51:18-19 are probably a later addition.
The psalm begins with at once grasping the character of God as the sole ground of hope. That character has been revealed in an infinite number of acts of love. The very number of the psalmists sins drove him to contemplate the yet greater number of Gods mercies. For where but in an infinite placableness and lovingkindness could he find pardon? If the Davidic authorship is adopted, this psalm followed Nathans assurance of forgiveness, and its petitions are the psalmists efforts to lay hold of that assurance. The revelation of Gods love precedes and causes true penitence. Our prayer for forgiveness is the appropriation of Gods promise of forgiveness. The assurance of pardon does not lead to a light estimate of sin, but drives it home to the conscience.
The petitions of Psa 51:1-2 teach us how the psalmist thought of sin. They are all substantially the same, and their repetition discloses the depth of longing in the suppliant. The language fluctuates between plural and singular nouns, designating the evil as “transgressions” and as “iniquity” and “sin.” The psalmist regards it, first, as a multitude of separate acts, then as all gathered together into a grim unity. The single deeds of wrong doing pass before him. But these have a common root; and we must not only recognise acts, but that alienation of heart from which they come-not only sin as it comes out in the life, but as it is coiled round our hearts. Sins are the manifestations of sin.
We note, too, how the psalmist realises his personal responsibility. He reiterates “my”-“my transgressions, my iniquity, my sin.” He does not throw blame on circumstances, or talk about temperament or maxims of society or bodily organisation. All these had some share in impelling him to sin; but after all allowance made for them, the deed is the doers, and he must bear its burden.
The same eloquent synonyms for evil deeds which are found in Psa 32:1-11 occur again here. “Transgression” is literally rebellion; “iniquity,” that which is twisted or bent; “sin,” missing a mark. Sin is rebellion, the uprising of the will against rightful authority-not merely the breach of abstract propriety or law, but opposition to a living Person, who has right to obedience. The definition of virtue is obedience to God, and the sin in sin is the assertion of independence of God and opposition to His will.
Not less profound is that other name, which regards sin as “iniquity” or distortion. Then there is a straight line to which mens lives should run parallel. Our lifes paths should be like these conquering Roman roads, turning aside for nothing, but going straight to their aim over mountain and ravine, stream or desert. But this mans passion had made for him a crooked path, where he found no end, “in wandering mazes lost.” Sin is, further, missing an aim, the aim being either the Divine purpose for man, the true ideal of manhood, or the satisfaction proposed by the sinner to himself as the result of his sin. In both senses every sin misses the mark.
These petitions show also how the psalmist thought of forgiveness. As the words for sin give a threefold view of it, so those for pardon set it forth in three aspects. “Blot out”; -that petition conceives of forgiveness as being the erasure of a writing, perhaps of an indictment. Our past is a blurred manuscript full of false and bad things. The melancholy theory of some thinkers is summed up in the despairing words, “What I have written, I have written.” But the psalmist knew better than that; and we should know better than he did. Our souls may become palimpsests: and, as devotional meditations might be written by a saint on a parchment that had borne foul legends of false gods, the bad writing on them may be obliterated, and Gods law be written there. “Wash me thoroughly” needs no explanation. But the word employed is significant, in that it probably means washing by kneading or beating, not by simple rinsing. The psalmist is ready to submit to any painful discipline, if only he may be cleansed. “Wash me, beat me, tread me down, hammer me with mallets, dash me against stones, do anything with me, if only these foul stains are melted from the texture of my soul.” The psalmist had not heard of the alchemy by which men can “wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb”; but he held fast by Gods “lovingkindness,” and knew the blackness of his own sin, and groaned under it; and therefore his cry was not in vain. An anticipation of the Christian teaching as to forgiveness lies in his last expression for pardon, “make me clean,” which is the technical word for the priestly act of declaring ceremonial purity, and for the other priestly act of making as well as declaring clean from the stains of leprosy. The suppliant thinks of his guilt not only as a blotted record or as a polluted robe, but as a fatal disease, the “firstborn of death,” and as capable of being taken away only by the hand of the Priest laid on the feculent mass. We know who put out His hand and touched the leper, and said, “I will: be thou clean.”
The petitions for cleansing are, in Psa 51:3, urged on the ground of the psalmists consciousness of sin. Penitent confession is a condition of forgiveness. There is no need to take this verse as giving the reason why the psalmist offered his prayer, rather than as presenting a plea why it should be answered. Some commentators have adopted the former explanation, from a fear lest the other should give countenance to the notion that repentance is a meritorious cause of forgiveness; but that is unnecessary scrupulousness. “Sin is always sin, and deserving of punishment, whether it is confessed or not. Still, confession of sin is of importance on this account-that God will be gracious to none but to those who confess their sin” (Luther, quoted by Perowne).
Psa 51:4 sounds the depths in both its clauses. In the first the psalmist shuts out all other aspects of his guilt, and is absorbed in its solemnity as viewed in relation to God. It is asked, How could David have thought of his sin, which had in so many ways been “against” others, as having been “against Thee, Thee only”? As has been noted above, this confession has been taken to demonstrate conclusively the impossibility of the Davidic authorship. But surely it argues a strange ignorance of the language of a penitent soul, to suppose that such words as the psalmists could be spoken only in regard to sins which had no bearing at all on other men. Davids deed had been a crime against Bathsheba, against Uriah, against his family and his realm; but these were not its blackest characteristics. Every crime against man is sin against God. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these ye have done it unto Me” is the spirit of the Decalogue as well as the language of Jesus. And it is only when considered as having relation to God that crimes are darkened into sins. The psalmist is stating a strictly true and profound thought when he declares that he has sinned “against Thee only.” Further, that thought has, for the time being, filled his whole horizon. Other aspects of his shameful deed will torture him enough in coming days, even when he has fully entered into the blessedness of forgiveness; but they are not present to his mind now, when the one awful thought of his perverted relation to God swallows up all others. A man who has never felt that all-engrossing sense of his sin as against God only has much to learn.
The second clause of Psa 51:4 opens the question whether “in order that” is always used in the Old Testament in its full meaning as expressing intention, or sometimes in the looser signification of “so that,” expressing result. Several passages usually referred to on this point {e.g., Exo 11:9; Isa 44:9; Hos 8:4} strongly favour the less stringent view, which is also in accordance with the genius of the Hebrew race, who were not metaphysicians. The other view, that the expression here means “in order that,” insists on grammatical precision in the cries of a penitent heart, and clogs the words with difficulty. If their meaning is that the psalmists sin was intended to show forth Gods righteousness in judging, the intention must have been Gods, not the sinners; and such a thought not only ascribes mans sin directly to God, but is quite irrelevant to the psalmists purpose in the words. For he is not palliating his transgression or throwing it on Divine predestination (as Cheyne takes him to be doing), but is submitting himself, in profoundest abasement of undivided guilt, to the just judgment of God. His prayer for forgiveness is accompanied with willingness to submit to chastisement, as all true desire for pardon is. He makes no excuses for his sin, but submits himself unconditionally to the just judgment of God. “Thou remainest the Holy One; I am the sinner; and therefore Thou mayest, with perfect justice, punish me and spurn me from Thy presence” (Stier).
Psa 51:5-6 are marked as closely related by the “Behold” at the beginning of each. The psalmist passes from penitent contemplation and confession of his acts of sin to acknowledge his sinful nature, derived from sinful parents. “Original sin” is theological terminology for the same facts which science gathers together under the name of “heredity.” The psalmist is not responsible for later dogmatic developments of the idea, but he feels that he has to confess not only his acts but his nature. “A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit.” The taint is transmitted. No fact is more plain than this, as all the more serious observers of human life and of their own characters have recognised. Only a superficial view of humanity or an inadequate conception of morality can jauntily say that “all children are born good.” Theologians have exaggerated and elaborated, as is their wont, and so have made the thought repugnant; but the derived sinful bias of human nature is a fact, not a dogma, and those who know it and their own share of it best will be disposed to agree with Browning, in finding one great reason for believing in Biblical religion, that-
“Tis the faith that launched point blank her dart
At the head of a lie-taught Original Sin,
The Corruption of Mans Heart.”
The psalmist is not, strictly speaking, either extenuating or aggravating his sin by thus recognising his evil nature. He does not think that sin is the less his, because the tendency has been inherited. But he is spreading all his condition before God. In fact, he is not so much thinking of his criminality as of his desperate need. From a burden so heavy and so entwined with himself none but God can deliver him. He cannot cleanse himself, for self is infected. He cannot find cleansing among men, for they too have inherited the poison. And so he is driven to God, or else must sink into despair. He who once sees into the black depths of his own heart will give up thereafter all ideas of “every man his own redeemer.” That the psalmists purpose was not to minimise his own guilt is clear, not only from the tone of the psalm, but from the antithesis presented by the Divine desire after inward truth in the next verse, which is out of place if this verse contains a palliation for sin.
We can scarcely miss the bearing of this verse on the question of whether the psalm is the confession of an individual penitent or that of the nation. It strongly favours the former, view, though it does not make the latter absolutely impossible.
The discovery of inherent and inherited sinfulness brings with it another discovery-that of the penetrating depth of the requirements of Gods law. He cannot be satisfied with outside conformity in deed. The more intensely conscience realises sin, the more solemnly rises before it the Divine ideal of man in its inwardness as well as in its sweep. Truth within – inward correspondence with His will, and absolute sincerity of soul are His desire. But I am “born in iniquity”: a terrible antithesis, and hopeless but for one hope which dawns over the suppliant like morning on a troubled sea. If we cannot ask God to make us what He wishes us to be, these two discoveries of our nature and of His will are open doorways to despair; but he who apprehends them wisely will find in their conjoint operation a force impelling him to prayer, and therefore to confidence. Only God can enable such a Being as man to become such as He will delight in; and since He seeks for truth within, He thereby pledges Himself to give the truth and wisdom for which He seeks.
Meditation on the sin which was ever before the psalmist, passes into renewed prayers for pardon, which partly reiterate those already offered in Psa 51:1-2. The petition in Psa 51:7 for purging with hyssop alludes to sprinkling of lepers and unclean persons, and indicates both a consciousness of great impurity and a clear perception of the symbolic meaning of ritual cleansings. “Wash me” repeats a former petition; but now the psalmist can venture to dwell more on the thought of future purity than he could do then. The approaching answer begins to make its brightness visible through the gloom, and it seems possible to the suppliant that even his stained nature shall glisten like sunlit snow. Nor does that expectation exhaust his confidence. He hopes for “joy and gladness.” His bones have been crushed-i.e., his whole self has been, as it were, ground to powder by the weight of Gods hand; but restoration is possible. A penitent heart is not too bold when it asks for joy. There is no real well-founded gladness without the consciousness of Divine forgiveness. The psalmist closes his petitions for pardon (Psa 51:9) with asking God to “hide His face from his sins,” so that they be, as it were, no more existent for Him, and, by a repetition of the initial petition in Psa 51:1, for the blotting out of “all mine iniquities.”
The second principal division begins with Psa 51:10, and is a prayer for purity, followed by vows of glad service. The prayer is contained in three verses (Psa 51:10-12), of which the first implores complete renewal of nature, the second beseeches that there may be no break between the suppliant and God, and the third asks for the joy and willingness to serve which would flow from the granting of the desires preceding. In each verse the second clause has “spirit” for its leading word, and the middle one of the three asks for “Thy holy spirit.” The petitions themselves, and the order in which they occur, are deeply significant, and deserve much more elucidation than can be given here. The same profound consciousness of inward corruption which spoke in the former part of the psalm shapes the prayer for renewal. Nothing less than a new creation will make this mans heart “clean.” His past has taught him that. The word employed is always used of Gods creative act; and the psalmist feels that nothing less than the power which brooded over the face of primeval chaos, and evolved thence an ordered world, can deal with the confused ruin within himself. What he felt that he must have is what prophets promised {Jer 24:7; Eze 36:26} and Christ has brought-a new creation, in which, while personality remains unaffected, and the components of character continue as before, a real new life is bestowed, which stamps new directions on affections, gives new aims, impulses, convictions, casts out inveterate evils, and gradually changes “all but the basis of the soul.” A desire for pardon which does not unfold into such longing for deliverance from the misery of the old self is not the offspring of genuine penitence, but only of base fear.
“A steadfast spirit” is needful in order to keep a cleansed heart clean; and, on the other hand, when, by cleanness of heart, a man is freed from the perturbations of rebellious desires and the weakening influences of sin, his spirit will be steadfast. The two characteristics sustain each other. Consciousness of corruption dictated the former desire; penitent recognition of weakness and fluctuation inspires the latter. It may be observed, too, that the triad of petitions having reference to “spirit” has for its central one a prayer for Gods Spirit, and that the other two may be regarded as dependent on that. Where Gods spirit dwells, the human spirit in which it abides will be firm with uncreated strength. His energy, being infused into a tremulous, changeful humanity, will make it stable. If we are to stand fast, we must be stayed on God.
The group of petitions in Psa 51:11 is negative. It deprecates a possible tragic separation from God, and that under two aspects. “Part me not from Thee; part not Thyself from me.” The former prayer, “Cast me not out from Thy presence,” is by some explained according to the analogy of other instances of the occurrence of the phrase, where it means expulsion from the land of Israel; and is claimed, thus interpreted, as a clear indication that the psalmist speaks in the name of the nation. But however certainly the expression is thus used elsewhere, it cannot, without introducing an alien thought, be so interpreted in its present connection, imbedded in petitions of the most spiritual and individual character: much rather, the psalmist is recoiling from what he knows only too well to be the consequence of an unclean heart-separation from God, whether in the sense of exclusion from the sanctuary, or in the profounder sense, which is not too deep for such a psalm, of conscious loss of the light of Gods face. He dreads being, Cain-like, shut out from that presence which is life; and he knows that, unless his previous prayer for a clean heart is answered, that dreary solitude of great darkness must be his lot. The sister petition, “Take not Thy holy spirit from me,” contemplates the union between God and him from the other side. He regards himself as possessing that Divine spirit; for he knows that, notwithstanding his sin, God has not left him, else he would not have these movements of godly sorrow and yearnings for purity. There is no reason to commit the anachronism of supposing that the psalmist had any knowledge of New Testament teaching of a personal Divine Spirit. But if we may suppose that he is David, this prayer has special force. That anointing which designated and fitted him for kingly office symbolised the gift of a Divine influence accompanying a Divine call. If we further remember how it had fared with his predecessor, from whom, because of impenitence, “the Spirit of the Lord departed, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him,” we understand how Sauls successor, trembling as he remembers his fate, prays with peculiar emphasis, “Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.”
The last member of the triad, in Psa 51:12, looks back to former petitions, and asks for restoration of the “joy of Thy salvation,” which had lain like dew on this man before he fell. In this connection the supplication for joy follows on the other two, because the joy which it desires is the result of their being granted. For what is “Thy salvation” but the gift of a clean heart and a steadfast spirit, the blessed consciousness of unbroken closeness of communion with God, in which the suppliant suns himself in the beams of Gods face, and receives an uninterrupted communication of His Spirits gifts? These are the sources of pure joy, lasting as God Himself, and victorious over all occasions for surface sorrow. The issue of all these gifts will be “a willing spirit,” delighting to obey, eager to serve. If Gods Spirit dwells in us, obedience will be delight. To serve God because we must is not service. To serve Him because we had rather do His will than anything else is the service which delights Him and blesses us. The word rendered “willing” comes by a very natural process, to mean nobles. Gods servants are princes and lords of everything besides, themselves included. Such obedience is freedom. If desires flow with equable motion parallel to Gods will, there is no sense of restraint in keeping within limits beyond which we do not desire to go. “I will walk at liberty; for I keep Thy precepts.”
The last part of the psalm runs over with joyful vows-first, of magnifying Gods name (Psa 51:13-15), and then of offering true sacrifices. A man who has passed through such experiences as the psalmists and has received the blessings for which he prayed, cannot be silent. The instinct of hearts touched by Gods mercies is to speak of them to others. And no man who can say “I will tell what He has done for my soul” is without the most persuasive argument to bring to bear on others. A piece of autobiography will touch men who are unaffected by elaborate reasonings and deaf to polished eloquence. The impulse and the capacity to “teach transgressors Thy ways” are given in the experience of sin and forgiveness; and if anyone has not the former, it is questionable whether he has, in any real sense or large measure, received the latter. The prayer for deliverance from blood guiltiness in Psa 51:14 breaks for a moment the flow of vows; but only for a moment. It indicates how amid them the psalmist preserved his sense of guilt, and how little he was disposed to think lightly of the sins of whose forgiveness he had prayed himself into the assurance. Its emergence here, like a black rock pushing its grimness up through a sparkling, sunny sea, in no sign of doubt whether his prayers had been answered; but it marks the abiding sense of sinfulness, which must ever accompany abiding gratitude for pardon and abiding holiness of heart. It seems hard to believe, as the advocates of a national reference in the psalm are obliged to do, that “blood guiltiness” has no special reference in the psalmists crime, but is employed simply as typical of sin in general. The mention of it finds a very obvious explanation on the hypothesis of Davidic authorship, and a rather constrained one on any other.
Psa 51:16 introduces the reason for the preceding vow of grateful praise, as is shown by the initial “For.” The psalmist will bring the sacrifices of a grateful heart making his lips musical, because he has learned that these, and not ritual offerings, are acceptable. The same depreciation of external sacrifices is strongly expressed in Psa 40:6, and here, as there, is not to be taken as an absolute condemnation of these, but as setting them decisively below spiritual service. To suppose that prophets or psalmists waged a polemic against ritual observances per se misapprehends their position entirely. They do war against “the sacrifice of the wicked,” against external acts which had no inward reality corresponding to them, against reliance on the outward and its undue exaltation. The authors of the later addition to this psalm had a true conception of its drift when they appended to it, not as a correction of a heretical tendency, but as a liturgical addition in full harmony with its spirit, the vow to “offer whole burnt offerings on” the restored “altar,” when God should again build up Zion.
The psalmists last words are immortal. “A heart broken and crushed, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” But they derive still deeper beauty and pathos when it is observed that they are spoken after confession has been answered to his consciousness by pardon, and longing for purity by at least some bestowal of it. The “joy of Thy salvation,” for which he had prayed has begun to flow into his heart. The “bones” which had been “crushed” are beginning to reknit, and thrills of gladness to steal through his frame; but still he feels that with all these happy experiences contrite consciousness of his sin must mingle. It does not rob his joy of one rapture, but it keeps it from becoming careless. He goes safely who goes humbly. The more sure a man is that God has put away the iniquity of his sin, the more should he remember it; for the remembrance will vivify gratitude and bind close to Him without whom there can be no steadfastness of spirit nor purity of life. The clean heart must continue contrite, if it is not to cease to be clean.
The liturgical addition implies that Jerusalem is in ruins. It cannot be supposed without violence to come from David. It is not needed in order to form a completion to the psalm, which ends more impressively, and has an inner unity and coherence, if the deep words of Psa 51:17 are taken as its close.